Heart's Legacy
by redfblued
Summary: Everyone in the superhero community wants to be part of one of the heroic legacies. Except for Nick Allen. But when the world's speedsters start disappearing will Nick step up into his birthright to save them or let The Flash Legacy fall? Fufic, AU. Rated for language and later scenes.
1. Prologue: Bloodlines

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Any scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have never been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you will enjoy.

A/N: Whenever I use any of the characters' real names, they're out of costume. When I use their code names, they're in costume.

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Prologue: Bloodlines

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"They called them the greatest heroes who ever existed. Legends of their legendary legacies."

"You know you just used legend two ways in one sentence? That's just wrong."

"Not to mention a little bit of a...what did they used to call it? A tongue-tangler?"

"Tongue-twister."

"Hey, I'm the one telling you what they'll say about us."

"Yeah, sure."

The four of us were sprawled around the living room of Mount Justice, trying to get away from our parents at the Hero Community's yearly brag-fest. When the four of us are together, most of the adults and even some of the kids call us the "Justice League to-be". We're only in our teens, but everyone says we're shoe-ins to take over our respective legacies. My three friends are eager to get to the next level in their own training. To be called the true proteges of the current Justice League. Me? Not so much.

Unlike when the League first started, there are now steps to getting higher on the Hero food-chain. They've been using the other teams, Young Justice, the Teen Titans, and even the Justice Society, to cull anyone that might not be worthy enough to become a Leaguer. Thousands over the years have tried and more than most of them have failed. They normally went on to other teams around the globe. Easier teams to get into at least. And if you're born into one of the legacies like the four of us, its even tougher to take over our families' highest code names. Steps have to be taken and the weak weeded out as the adults say.

Wanda Prince, blond haired and dark-eyed, is the only girl among us four and was named the new Wonder Girl just 6 months ago. She's ecstatic; saying how she's going to try to train with her grandmother (the current Wonder Woman) before she's 16. Which happens in only three months from now. There have been several Wonder Girls from her family and 6 have gone on to take on the role of Wonder Woman. The original Wonder Woman, Diana Prince, is her great-somethings grandmother. She's one of the two powerhouses among us four.

My best friend, Andrew Kent is the current Superboy and has been for the last year; earned the title right after he turned 15. He may not be pure Kryptonian like the original Superman, but he is the purest one left on the planet and looks just like the original Superman with his dark hair and baby blue eyes. His blood is a little more bizarre than the rest of ours though. He's not just a part of Superman's legacy, but Martian Manhunter's too. None of us understand it either, but he's our main powerhouse and can use telekinesis. He's studying under his own grandfather (also the current Superman) to use his powers correctly and not melt our faces off accidentally with his heat vision. The two of us are only a month apart in age and he's also one of Wanda's cousins.

Then there is Ethan Wayne. Yeah. That Wayne. The Batman Wayne. He's one of the main heirs to the Wayne Foundation mega-fortune. Incidentally, his grandfather, the current Batman, is also my mother's father too. We may be related, but he and I aren't rivals for the Batman costume at all. He's been the current Robin for two years now and leader of the Teen Titans for all of that time except for his first day. Not to mention, at only 15, an up-and-coming CEO in his own father's part of the company and a multi-time world-wide champion at all things martial arts. He has Wayne, McGinnis, West, and Grayson blood in him. Unfortunately, he's not fast like our great-great grandmother, Iris Wayne. My father calls him a true member of the Bat Family because of his intelligence and deducing skills.

And me?

My name is Nick Allen.

I'm the fastest teen alive.

My great grandfather on my father's side, Thomas Allen, was the sixth Flash. Iris Wayne, my great-great grandmother on my mother's side was the fifth Flash. Bart Allen, my great-great grandfather on my father's side was the fourth Flash. Wally West, my great-great-great grandfather on my mother's side was the third Flash. And Barry Allen, my great-great-great-GREAT grandfather on my father's side was the second Flash.

What does that mean?

Lightning runs through my veins. I have Allen, West, Wayne, Grayson, Drake, and even a very small bit of Kent blood coursing through me. They say I can't help but be a hero with so many bloodlines. The problem is; I don't want to be a hero. I don't want to be a part of the Flash Legacy. I just want to be a normal red-headed, golden eyed 16 year old. Which is why my three closest friends have held themselves back from becoming proteges of the Justice League.

Its been three years since I passed the last Impulse test in Young Justice. A few days before I was supposed to join the Teen Titans as Kid Flash, another world crisis happened. Since I wasn't officially a Titan yet, I was left with the other heroes' kids at Mount Justice again. Both my father and mother, as speedsters, joined the fight to save the world.

Only one of them came back.

Its been three years since the Speed Force took my mother from us and since then, I've been out of the hero business.

Yet my three friends still keep trying.

"There hasn't been a speedster in the Teen Titans for over twenty years." Ethan leaned back on his stool at the kitchen island. "Do you know how many missions I could have used you on in the last month alone?"

"Do you remember how the four of us worked together in Young Justice?" Andrew hovered over the couch where Wanda and I sat. "We were unstoppable!" Wanda snickered as she grabbed a handful of popcorn.

"Yeah, even against our own chaperones. I still remember the time when Green Arrow was supposed to watch over us." I had to shake my head.

"The League was trying to see how he handled a crowd. With twelve hyperactive young heroes and heroines they knew it was overkill." I glanced up at Andrew as he smiled in remembrance. "You know, I don't think that hole was ever covered up on the side of the mountain."

"Nope. They're using it as a ventilation shaft now. I checked when I came in with my grandfather." Ethan snatched a sandwich off the tray that we'd managed to sneak from the party in the main cavern.

"You were less than two days away from being the first among us to get into the Teen Titans, Nick. Don't you think its been a long enough wait?" Andrew landed next to Ethan, a huge smile on his face.

"Yeah! The world needs another Flash, bro." Shooting both of them a glare, I turned towards the muted television.

"We all know that the newest Impulse is doing very well in Young Justice. It may be only a matter of time until she passes her tests and becomes a Titan with you guys. Then you'll have a Kid Flash." I looked at the ground and felt Wanda's hand on my shoulder.

"But we all know that she can't quite reach the speed of sound. She can't even get close to your speed. Nick? Your dad told the Justice League how fast you were three years ago." Ethan swallowed the last of the sandwich he'd grabbed.

"And we confirmed it for them. You're still the fastest of the current speedsters. The only one worthy of becoming OUR Kid Flash." I looked straight at Ethan.

"You of all people know the saying that defines the speedsters." Ethan nodded.

"Live fast. Die young." Andrew rolled his eyes.

"Oh, come on. You don't really believe it do you?"

"How can I not believe it? Most speedsters don't live to see 40!" A white and red streak came into the room and stopped in front of the couch. My younger 7 year old cousin, the current Impulse, smiled at us as I frowned. "What is it Emily?"

"Uncle Kevin was wondering where you went. He wants you to say hello to our relatives." Groaning as Impulse tugged at my hand, I reluctantly got up from the comfortable couch, knowing I probably wouldn't see Andrew, Ethan, or Wanda again for the rest of the night; or the rest of the year.

"I'll see you guys around." They waved as Impulse tugged me down the hallway, whining for me to go faster as I purposefully dragged my feet, wanting to be done with this Hero Reunion crap and just go home to Central City and my homework.

As soon as I was in the doorway to the main cave, I felt my dad's grip on my shoulder.

"There you are Nick. Come on now, you know how speedsters hate to wait." He rushed me through the crowd, plopping me in the middle of relatives I rarely see outside the cave. "Here he is! He was just working out with Superboy in the weight room! I'm guessing he's getting himself ready to join the Teen Titans this year." Impulse tugged on my hand again, getting me to bend down so she could whisper into my ear.

"If you were working out, howcum I found you, Superboy, Wonder Girl, and Robin in the living room?"

"I'll tell you later Em, okay?" I turned to my father, hissing in his ear. "When. Can. We. Leave?" He just put on a smile as our relatives gabbed on and on about how proud he must be that I was going to uphold the Flash Legacy. I don't like to use my powers, but right now, I'm seriously considering running to the other end of the world just to get away from my father's fake smiles and empty promises. All he does is assure people that I'm going to become the greatest Flash in the Allen Legacy. Flash number seven. I can't count how many times I've told him that I don't want to be a speedster.

_I don't want this lightning in my veins._

_ I don't want to become the Flash._

_I don't want to be an Allen._

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Prologue End

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Thank you for reading and please review!


	2. The Boy and The Speedster

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy.

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Chapter 1: The Boy and The Speedster

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-Six months later-

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They towered over me. My speedster relatives were whispering to each other and looking down in the hole I'd fallen into. I tried scrambling up the crumbling side again, but I fell back down as everyone outside the hole laughed and kept whispering to each other. No one was even bothering to lend me a hand.

Lightning threaded through the sky above all of us as I looked down when two black, clawed hands burst through the dirt at my feet, grabbing my arms. Unable to move, I looked up at my relatives again to see that they'd been replaced by six people wearing Flash costumes. All of them held out their gloved hands to try and help me. The moment they started to reach for me, the clawed hands started dragging me down into the dirt at the bottom of the hole. Hot, putrid breath was on the back of my neck, and I knew then what had me in its deadly grasp. I didn't dare look behind me and kept my eyes on the Flashes that were still trying to reach for me.

"Nick?"

The dirt was reaching my neck.

"Nick, wake up."

I took my last breath as I was pulled under.

"Nick, please wake up!"

My eyes snapped open to darkness as I gasped for breath. Someone was shaking me as I lay in my bed.

"Emily? What are..." I groped for the light next to my bed, turning it on and squinting in the brightness at my little costumed cousin. She looked relieved that I'd woken up. That's when I noticed the tears running down her cheeks. "Hey, what's wrong Imp?"

"I can't find them, Nick. Any of them." Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I mumbled a little to myself about her lack of details.

"Who can't you find? Your team?"

"The other speedsters. Even my daddy and Uncle Kevin are missing. I've been around the world four times to look for them all. You're the only one I found." That woke me up.

"Did you check with any of their teams?" She nodded as I got out of bed, grabbing a shirt to put on over my undershirt and sweatpants. "And what did they say?"

"All of them tried to capture me. They said it was for my own good." I trotted down the hallway in my socks to my father's bedroom with Impulse right behind me. "Nick, what's going on? Are we the last of the speedsters?"

"No, Imp. We're not the last speedsters. I just need to check..." My father's bed was empty and I didn't hear anyone thumping around downstairs like he normally did when he was up during the night. A few beeps came from his closed closet and Impulse streaked to the door, opening it. After moving Impulse out of the way, I could tell the beeping was coming from the back wall of his small closet.

"Why is the wall beeping?"

"I dunno. Check the other side of this wall. WITHOUT destroying something!" She zipped out of the room and was back within a second.

"Its the shower, but I didn't hear it beep." There was no crack or opening at the back of the closet, so I did something I haven't done in years. Vibrating my arm, I reached through the wall for whatever it was. "You can do that?"

"Yeah. I haven't done it in a long time though. I'm guessing you can't?" She shrugged as I kept vibrating the part of my arm that was still in the wall and let my hand become solid to feel for what was in the space. It took me a minute, but I finally pulled out an old Flash wingtip comm-link. We both peered at it before Impulse looked at me.

"Are you gonna answer it?"

"Imp, you know I'm not a part of the hero community anymore. For all I know they'd want to talk to you." She grabbed my arm, peering up at me with her big blue eyes.

"But they still know you're a speedster too." A car's headlights illuminated the room as it pulled into the driveway, stopping our conversation. Impulse's face lit up happily as I saw the time on my father's bedside table. "Maybe its Uncle Kevin coming home!"

"Impulse, wait!" She was out the bedroom door and down the stairs to the front door. Before she could wrench it open, I grabbed her and pulled her farther back into the house. "That's not my father. He didn't take his car when he left this morning."

Someone knocked hard on the front door, ringing the doorbell not a second after. I kept my hand on Impulse's arm as I got my shoes on, hoping they'd last the short trip to where I knew she'd be safe. Whoever was at the front door knocked so hard that I heard the doorjamb crack before I unlocked and opened the back door through the kitchen. Taking a look around as I led her through the backyard, I got a glimpse of two shadows vaulting over the front of the fence before I scooped Impulse up and vibrated through the back of the fence with her, taking off as soon as I cleared it.

I forgot how it felt to really run. Its a release for a speedster to be able to stretch their legs after denying themselves the pleasure for so long. The wind rushing around me and the glimpses of things that I passed told me that I was almost to my destination within three seconds. Stopping on a dime at the bottom steps, I put Impulse down as I looked up at the place I'd been avoiding ever since my mother died. My cousin leaped up the steps in glee.

"We're staying here? Really? Can I see if I'm in the Impulse wing yet? Can I? Can I?" Taking a deep breath, I reluctantly went up the steps of Central City's Flash Museum, watching Impulse zip around the closest doors and windows. "They're locked! Are you sure we can be here?"

"Yes, we can. There's a special room only a very few speedsters know about and can get into. I'm one of them. Hop up, Imp." I kneeled so she could jump onto my back before I vibrated both of us through one of the locked doors.

Going through the dark halls full of Flash memorabilia was eerie. It became even more chilling as I walked through the Rogues' Gallery to the spot my father took me to when I first became Impulse over ten years ago. I stared at the Flash symbol that was painted expertly on the villain vault that was behind bullet-proof glass. This big bad boy held all the deadlier weapons of the Flash's Rogues that no one wanted anyone to ever use again. The door and walls were over four-feet thick and had six inches of lead shielding on the inside.

What no one outside my family ever knew about was the small living space that had been built on the other side of the safe. A previous Flash had it installed a very long time ago for emergencies and it had its own safety features built-in including lead-lined two-feet thick concrete with only vents and no doors leading into or out of it. There was only one way to get in and that was to vibrate through all the layers. Nowadays, only a speedster could get in or out.

"Close your eyes, Impulse. I'd rather you not see what's in the vault." She buried her face into the back of my neck, hanging onto me as I vibrated and stepped forward through the bulletproof glass and into the door.

It didn't take me 10 seconds to get all the way through to the emergency living room that actually lit up when I stopped vibrating. It was nicely decorated, though some of the furniture could have been updated from last century to this century. There were a few pictures hanging on the walls and the usual furniture pieces; couch, lounge chair, kitchen table, kitchen chairs, a dresser, and even a queen-sized bed. Someone in the past had gone to great lengths to make it feel like a home and not like a doorless prison cell. I was thankful about that as Impulse took her cowl off and leapt up onto the bed, bouncing a little to see how soft it was.

"Why didn't daddy ever tell me about this place?" I took off my already ruined shoes and stretched out on the couch, yawning. I wasn't used to using my powers so much within such a short amount of time.

"He may not have been told about it since he doesn't have the ability to vibrate through things. Try and get some sleep Emily, its only about 1:30 in the morning." She came over to the couch.

"What if bad people track us here?"

"They won't. And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to get in this room. Its even been bomb-proofed. Don't worry about it." She bit her lip, not convinced. "Look, if I take a look around the building for anything suspicious, will you get ready for bed?" Emily nodded as I got back up and padded to the wall that led to the vault and the rest of the museum. "I'll be back in about ten minutes."

"Ten minutes? Why so long?"

"I need to find some shoes and see if I can find some food for the morning too." I vibrated back into the museum and headed for the Kid Flash wing to find a temporary shoe solution. There were actually several types of speedster shoes to choose from, but I didn't want to use them because all of the shoes came with the costumes. But if someone really did come looking for my cousin, I would be discovered too. I'd been drilled in secret identities all of my life and if I was found out to be a speedster, there'd be no way of going back to my more normal teenage life.

Passing over the newer versions, I chose one of the first Kid Flash costumes that I thought looked more comfortable without all the (pardon the pun) flashiness of the newer versions. It belonged to Bart Allen before he became the Flash. I carefully took the ring out of its case and triggered the hidden compartment to release the costume. As if it were still new, the suit popped out of the ring, expanding instantly like it was supposed to. I quickly changed into it, feeling it conform to my body, but kept the mask off for now. My great somethings grandfather must have been a little shorter than me. Stretching a little to test the fabric, thankfully it didn't rip anywhere and was still willing to stretch each way that I went before I got a glimpse of myself in one of the display cases.

I never thought I'd be wearing a speedster costume ever again; and yet here I was wearing the yellow and red of Kid Flash. If my father or my friends saw me, they'd flip and probably say that it was about time that I stepped up to the legacy. I kept telling myself that I was only in this costume temporarily; maybe a day or so to make sure Emily was kept safe. Hopping a few times to test the shoes out, I went around the room once at a meandering 100 mph before I heard footsteps down the hall. In an instant, I had the cowl in place and all of my past training ran through my head as I silently streaked to the end of the hallway, carefully looking around the corner. A kid close to Emily's age was walking wide-eyed to the main Flash exhibits. As I followed him, he kept gently touching the glass displays that held any speedster items as he went. Stopping to look up at a Wally West Flash statue, the boy sighed before I got right behind him with arms crossed, hoping my voice would come out authoritative.

"You're not supposed to be in here, kid." He jumped in surprise, whirling around and already sputtering an apology before actually looking up at me.

"I'm sorry! Please don't call the police on me! I-I wasn't going to steal anything. I just wanted to...to..." His eyes went wide as his eyesight went from my yellow boots all the way up to my masked face. "Y-you...you're...you're Kid Flash!" My hackles raised for a moment from being called Kid Flash but I decided to ignore it.

"And you're not supposed to be here at this hour. How did you get into the museum in the first place?" His eyes were still wide as he shoved his too-long brown bangs away, tripping over his words.

"The...the curator leaves o-one of the windows unlocked during the night cause h-he knows a lot of us kids that look up to the Flash don't have...none of us have money. I'm sorry, but please don't kick me out! I love it here. I've come here every other night for the past two years!" _And I've been avoiding this place for the last three years._ The kid's big green eyes pleaded up at me from behind long bangs. "Coming to the Flash Museum is the only thing I have to look forward to anymore." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, not wanting to scare the kid.

"Your parents don't have the money to bring you or what?" His little face crumpled, looking to the marble floor.

"My mom and dad used to bring me here but...but they can't anymore." Cocking an eyebrow at him, I waited for him to continue. "They died two and a half years ago. A Rogue killed them during a robbery." I couldn't help but flinch. My father and uncle protected Central City and Keystone City, but my father always said that it was much easier when I was running alongside them. He praised Emily for her guts in a fight, but she was never as fast as I was.

"I'm...I'm sorry to hear that, kid." He looked up at me in adoration.

"Its not your fault, Kid Flash. It was the Rogue's fault, and you fight the Rogues. That's why I look up to speedsters. Especially the Flash." He looked up at the Wally West statue again. "I wish I were a speedster. Then I could help people. Like you do."

"Be careful what you wish for kid. Its not an easy life. We don't normally live very long." He looked back at me, but I was looking at the items that were in the room. I remember every detail my father and mother told me about the things in the place; every poster, display case, and statue. No matter what I did to forget them over the years, I still remembered them all.

"Kid Flash?" I looked down at him again. "Can...do you know any stories about the Flash? The curator's never here at night to tell any stories to me or anyone else that comes." I couldn't help but smile down at the kid who so plainly loved and looked up to the legacy I didn't want to be a part of. But just for this one night, I guess I could re-tell at least a few stories.

"Well..."

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Chapter 1 End

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Thank you for reading and please review!


	3. Kidnappers

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

A/N: I'm going to have a few of Nick's thoughts in _italic print_.

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Chapter 2: Kidnappers

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"You're lying!"

"I'm not lying at all. That's what happened." Stretching my legs in front of me, I leaned back in the bench chuckling as the boy, Jack, sat next to me staring at a picture of Iris West in her Flash costume fighting alongside her then fiancee, Damian Wayne. "I was told it was an intense battle." I'd been telling Jack stories in the Flash Museum for the last two hours. Surprisingly, the time went quicker than I'd expected it to. He looked up at me with his innocent hazel eyes.

"Kid Flash? Why did you disappear so long ago? Were you hurt?" I smiled sadly at him.

"Lets just say that something happened in the last world crisis that made me doubt if I wanted to be a speedster anymore." Before he could ask me anything else, we both heard something fall next door in the Impulse wing and I shot to my feet as my mind raced back to the reason I was in the Flash Museum in the first place.

"What was-" I put my hand over his mouth, putting my finger up to my lips in the universal sign for him to be quiet.

"Go find somewhere to hide kiddo. I need to see what that was." He nodded and ran behind a display, peeking out to try and watch me slip from shadow to shadow.

I made it to the entrance of the Impulse wing without seeing anyone and peeked around the corner. Nothing was moving among the many things in the first room, but I did hear a small voice berating herself beyond the next corner. I managed to zip across the room and peek around the corner to see Impulse trying to get a partially broken statue of the second Inertia back on its pedestal. My shoulders relaxed as I walked quietly up behind her.

"Stupid heavy statue. Get...back...up...there!" It started falling towards her but I caught it with one hand. She squeaked in surprise and whipped around, her eyes wide as I put the not-heavy-to-me statue back on its stand.

"Impulse, what are you doing out here? How did you get out?" She kept looking me up and down in shock. "You should be asleep by now. Didn't your dad ever tell you how important sleep is to a speedster?" I waited until she said something.

"Y...You're wearing..." _Crap._

"Later, Impulse. How did you get out?" She shook off the surprise of seeing me in a Kid Flash costume and grinned up at me proudly.

"I vibrated! And I didn't blow anything up like before!"

"Like before?" She nodded with her big innocent smile. "Ugh. Imp, I wanted you to stay in the room for your own protection."

"But you didn't come back, Nick. I was afraid that you'd disappeared too." I ran a hand through my hair, not blaming her for worrying since I did say I'd only be gone for ten minutes and it had been two hours. An annoying ringing in my ears started as I sighed in defeat.

"Alright, first thing's first. When I'm wearing this, no matter how much I might not like it, you need to call me Kid Flash. There's a reason I didn't come back to the room yet. I found a kid wandering the hallways earlier and lost track of time while telling him a few Flash stories. I'm sorry for scaring you, kiddo." Her eyes lit up.

"You know some stories? Like what?" I started to steer her out of the Impulse wing, the strange ringing in my ears slowly getting louder as we approached the Flash wing.

"Maybe if you promise after one story to go to sleep, I'll tell you and the boy a really good Flash story. Okay?" She nodded as the two of us came back to where Jack was hiding. "Hey, Jack? Still in here kid?" The boy didn't hesitate to come out when he saw Impulse.

"Wow! You're Impulse!" Her smile stretched from ear to ear as the two shook hands excitedly before they both looked up at me expectantly. I pointed to the bench in front of a particular display that held a broken Flash wingtip, a shattered mirror, and a cracked red birdarang.

"Now, this is the last one for the night since Impulse needs to get some sleep and Jack probably needs to get back to his foster parents' house." Both kids groaned as the ringing in my ears went from ignorable to much more noticeable.

That's when I saw Impulse rub at one of her own wingtips, trying to get to her ear while Jack slightly shook his head, sticking his finger into his ear as if he was trying to clear it. The ringing intensified even before I could start to tell the story. Shaking my head to clear it from the sound, a fact that my mother told me long ago snapped into my brain. At a certain frequency, a person could immobilize a speedster by using a precise high-pitch to cause the inner ear to go out of balance, making a speedster too dizzy to run anywhere. I haven't heard of it being used since the Flash days of Bart Allen. As the sound went to a screaming pitch, the room started swimming as the kids fell off the bench, clutching at their ears while both of them started to scream.

Falling to my knees, I heard something smash through glass in a different part of the Flash Museum. An alarm started shrieking while white and red lights flashed throughout the building. Wrenching to my feet from a shot of adrenaline, fighting the growing dizziness, I managed to grab both kids and haul them behind a display, yelling for them to stay down as I ran/staggered for the villain wing, starting to come up with the dregs of a plan.

Windows were breaking in the other parts of the museum and I could hear men yelling down different hallways as I made it to the Rogues Gallery, stumbling and getting dizzier by the second as I came to a weapons case. Vaulting to the other side of the display, I smashed the lock and groped for the sound weapon I knew was in there, hoping to temporarily make myself deaf so that I wouldn't hear the maddening high-pitch. A flashlight came around the corner as I grabbed one of the old Pied Piper weapons along with Captain Cold's cold gun. Before the guy in black could even realize I was in there, I shot him with the cold gun, freezing him in the entrance. Heading out a different hallway, I blew into the pipe as hard as I could, blowing my own ears out, but it gave me relief from the horrible dizziness of the high-pitch that rang through the whole museum. I'd be unable to hear for awhile, but at least I wasn't dizzy anymore.

I managed to freeze several men in black clothes in the last five minutes, silently saying sorry as I went and hoping I could find a way of thawing them out later before they died in the ice cages that were now strewn all around the museum. My hand was going numb from using the cold gun so many times and I was afraid that if I vibrated my hand to get it warm again, I'd vibrate the old gun to pieces. I saw another man yelling into his ear piece ahead that hadn't noticed me but since I still couldn't hear, I had no idea what he was saying; but as soon as I passed him, he fell to the floor, unconscious from my high-speed fist in his face.

A very slight ringing in my ears started a minute later, telling me that my hearing was starting to come back as I managed to take down two guys at once. I'd left Pied Piper's pipe in another room three minutes ago, thinking I wouldn't need it again. Oh how wrong I was. As my hearing came back, the dizziness started kicking in and I stumbled, knocking over a Green Lantern standee as I heard another man come running down the hallway towards me, yelling into his ear piece.

"Affirmative sir, police are already on their way. Package is secured? Good. S-19 didn't disable the alarms. We have less than two - what the hell!?" I knew the man spotted me as I tried to get back to my feet but failed, slipping back to my hands and knees on the floor. My head reeled as I aimed the cold gun at him. "S-34 to S-2! S-34 to S-2! I found out who was freezing our men! You're not gonna believe this! Its-" I froze the guy before he could get another word out.

Falling face-first to the floor, I closed my eyes, feeling my stomach lurch from the world spinning so crazily. _What did he mean package is secured? Did they get Impulse? Oh, God I hope not. What about Jack?_ I opened my eyes to see another man in black approaching the guy I'd just took out. _How many are there!?_

This one was much more cautious when he saw his buddy frozen in mid-yell. Leveling his gun, he did a sweep of the hallway, not seeing me on the floor behind his teammate yet. I couldn't aim the cold gun this time. My hearing was back to normal and the dizziness was too much to handle. The guy took a step around his frozen buddy right as the old comm-link on my ear piece crackled to life.

"Con...ed. Taking...own, now."

"Do yo...ink they're here?"

"Do you really think someo...uld attack THIS building in Central City if they weren't!?" That voice sounded very familiar.

The man saw me lying on the floor and leveled his gun at me just as an explosion outside blew out all the other windows that hadn't already been broken. As soon as I started trying to get up, the guy in black slammed me back down to the ground with a boot to my back and the muzzle to his gun at the back of my neck.

"S-13 to S-2. I found a surprise for the members. What's going on out there?" My comm-link went off again.

"Get that ship! The rest of you, get inside and get me people to interrogate! If we're lucky, there might still be one in there!" _I know that voice! It's Ethan! Robin! The Teen Titans must have gotten the alarm before the police._ For a moment, I wondered if it was just the Teen Titans that got the alarm or would other teams be descending onto the Flash Museum in the next twenty minutes. As the man that held me down at gunpoint spoke into his ear piece, I managed to inch my hand to my own comm-link, thankful that it kind-of worked like the Impulse one I had years ago. The high-pitch that had been ringing through the building suddenly cut off as I made a desperate call out.

"Mayday! Kid Flash to Teen Titans! I'm pinned inside! AH!" The man's gun went off and something hit my lower back as I felt a tranquilizer suddenly coursing through my body, making it harder and harder to talk straight. "Mayday. May...mayday." I could hear Robin yelling through the comm-link as I felt the man lift me up off the floor a second later, hefting my quickly-going-limp body over his shoulder.

"Kid Flash!? KID FLASH WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"H...help me." While running with me over his shoulder, the guy awkwardly put some sort of mask over my nose and mouth, clipping it at the back of my head and activating a sort of knock-out gas that filled the mask instantly. I knew I couldn't struggle out of the kidnapper's grasp since the tranquilizer that he had already hit me with was coursing through my veins, immobilizing me. Now with the constant flow of gas that the mask kept giving me, I had no chance. Whoever was kidnapping speedsters, they knew what they were doing.

* * *

_Groggy. So tired. What is this? I can't move. Can't speak. Can't open my eyes. Where am I? I'm being carried somewhere warm. Why is someone stroking my hair?_

"Can you get it off of him?" _Isn't that Wanda's voice?_

"I'm trying. I don't want to hurt him though." _And Ethan? What's going on?_ The last memories I had shoot through my brain. _I was getting kidnapped! Holy shit! _

"At least you managed to lessen the gas from his mask. Even my head was starting to swim." I could hear Andrew's voice rumble through his chest as he quickly walked. _ He's the one carrying me and Wanda must have been the one stroking my hair a moment ago._ I felt someone tinkering with the back of the mask that was still over my nose and mouth.

"I'm just glad they didn't get away with him." An unfamiliar female voice.

"Where do you want to put him? Over here?" An unfamiliar gravelly male voice. _Am I in Titans Tower? The Watchtower?_ Ethan must have shaken his head.

"If he wakes up suddenly, I don't want him to panic and accidentally hurt himself. In there will do. It has a heart monitor and its closed off. Hopefully we have enough bags left for an IV. He needs nutrients or he won't heal. That gash looks bad and his body isn't metabolizing it the way it normally would." _Gash? I didn't get a cut during my dizzying run around the museum. Well, now that I can feel my body a little more, there is a nasty little pain in my right shoulder. And what do I need a heart monitor for? What was going on!? And why couldn't I open my eyes!?_ "I just wish we had gotten there in time to save Impulse." _Oh HELL no!_

"Hey!" Andrew stopped and I could feel Ethan stop playing with the clasp of the mask at the back of my head.

"What, Superboy?"

"I thought I felt him move." He gently shook me. "Kid Flash? Buddy, can you hear me?" I fought for my limp body to MOVE but it refused. But I did somehow manage to get a small sound out of my throat. "Kid!?" Too bad it was a whimper. I heard a flurry of activity around me as Andrew put me gently into a soft bed. Someone hooked me up to a heart monitor as I felt another spear my arm with an IV.

"Kid Flash? Can you hear me? Nick?" Wanda went back to stroking my hair and had my hand in hers. "If you can hear me, can you squeeze my hand?" I tried to squeeze her hand but I also felt a needle go into my upper arm, injecting me with something as I slowly started to feel myself throwing off the effects of the earlier tranquilizer.

"Heartbeat's strong, but slow for a speedster." I could hear the worry in Ethan's voice.

"What does that mean?" Wanda squeezed my hand gently.

"It means I need to get this mask off of him." Ethan attacked the mask that was still fuming out knockout gas to me. Andrew kept calling out my vitals as Wanda kept trying to get me to squeeze her hand. The other male voice spoke up.

"Uh...guys?" I could feel someone gently prodding at my shoulder. "I think its working. He's healing."

After a few minutes I could feel myself slowly being able to move again as the heart monitor started picking up speed, getting to a more normal pace for a speedster. Wanda gasped as I finally managed to squeeze her hand lightly before encouraging me some more. Ethan grumbled as I felt the knockout gas from the mask finally stop altogether. It took me less than a second for my eyes to fly open when I suddenly couldn't get any air into my lungs. Both Wonder Girl and Robin managed to get out of the way as I bolted up into a sitting position, trying to claw the mask off of my face in panic. The knockout gas must have also had oxygen flowing with it so when the gas stopped, so did my breathing and rational thought.

I leapt off of the bed in a blur, slamming into a wall face first as I desperately clawed at the mask before Superboy caught me, pinning my arms to my sides. Robin was in front of me, his eyes as wide as mine as he snipped a few more pieces of the mask, trying to work around my struggles. Within ten seconds, it was off my face and hanging from Robin's gloved hand. Gasping and coughing, I sagged in my best friend's arms, trying to catch my breath as my still weak body screamed at me in protest. My legs couldn't handle my weight yet, and I could tell that I re-opened my shoulder a bit. Superboy and the other male that looked like he'd been split between human, computer, and animal managed to get me into the bed again.

Wonder Girl put an oxygen mask over my face as I gasped for the next few minutes, drinking in the sweet oxygen while the IV and heart monitor were put back into place from when I jumped off the bed. The other girl, an archer, checked the damage on my shoulder. I felt someone pat me on the top of the foot in relief as Superboy put an icepack on my now pounding forehead. Robin grasped my hand in his gloved one, squeezing it a little as a slow smile crawled up his face.

"Good to have you back, Kid Flash."

* * *

Chapter 2 End

* * *

Thank you for reading and please review!


	4. Under Tower Arrest

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 3: Under Tower Arrest

* * *

_It feels like I'm seven years old again sitting against a wall for a time-out._

The chair I was sitting on was facing the rest of the room where heroes and heroines were discussing the possible whos and whys on the kidnapping of speedsters around the world. There were over fifty people from fifteen different teams arguing their own theories against others. After finding out that I hadn't been taken this morning, it took them less than an hour for everyone to show up at Titans Tower for the impromptu meeting. All I could see were bright colors and a lot of spandex and capes in front of me. The Teen Titans were sitting in chairs on either side of me, not wanting to get too involved in the going-on-six-hour meeting. Robin had disappeared into the crowd fifteen minutes ago to try and get the adults to let us teens stretch our legs and get something to eat. Yawning, I ran my gloved hand through my hair, wanting to leave the room from pure boredom.

"Why do I have to sit through this again?" Wonder Girl shot me a disapproving look.

"Because you're the only speedster that any of us have left." I snorted in annoyance as Superboy chuckled.

"She's right, man. Why do you think the League is so antsy? If the world falls into a crisis, we're not going to win without you." I shot my best friend a dirty look and he held his hands up. "What?" I stood up from the chair which got the attention of everyone in the room and sped away to the kitchen before anyone could stop me.

Skidding to a halt in the small kitchen, I grabbed an apple and shot all the way up Titans Tower to the roof, enjoying the cooling air as the sun started going down over the ocean. It was only that morning that I'd almost been kidnapped along with Impulse. I already heard all of the theories everyone had on why speedsters had been getting kidnapped, but none of them really made sense. Most of the hero community thought it was some sort of vendetta against us, but then why would they go to such lengths to QUIETLY kidnap us?

Sitting down near the edge and watching one of the hover cars fly across the bay, my mind ran through the other reasons why someone would want to kidnap speedsters.

_What did we have that others in the hero community didn't?_

_Well that's an easy answer. Speed. _

_ It can't be just that though. Our vibrations? Not likely unless they wanted to destroy something. Control over our own molecules? But not all speedsters have that kind of control like my father and I. Well, okay fine I may have better control than my father but that's beside the point. What about our ability to get to different universes?_ That was the most likely reason, but a few villains have already tried that in the past with disturbing results. _Could it actually be something with the Speed Force itself? That's the number one thing that separated us from the rest of the hero community. Besides, if they had only been after speed, whoever had been kidnapping speedsters would have also gone after the other heroes and heroines that were fast. Even Superboy can fly up to the speed of sound._

A sudden, random thought shot through my head.

_If Impulse hadn't come to me last night for help, I wouldn't be involved in this. Maybe whoever was behind all this was trying to flush me out of the woodwork? Nah. That probably would have gone along with the vendetta against the Flash, but it makes no sense. I convinced my father years ago to report to the papers that I died with mom during the last crisis._

"Kid Flash?" Internally grumbling, I turned to see my Grandpa Wayne in the still intimidating Batman costume walking up to me. Tossing the remains of the apple over the edge, I hopped to my feet, walking slowly over to him. "Son, I know this situation is disturbing you."

"Disturbing me? Why would this whole thing be disturbing me? You mean the fact that half of my extended family is missing? That I couldn't save my cousin or that I almost got kidnapped myself? That I wasn't even TOLD there were missing speedsters? Or maybe despite how long I've been saying that I don't want anything to do with the hero community, I'm suddenly stuck here in the middle of everything wearing a uniform that I'd been denying for years?"

"Calm down, Kid Flash." Closing my eyes, I ran my gloved hand through my hair again as I took a deep breath and let it out, letting him come up to me.

"Why is this happening Batman? Why me all of a sudden?" I felt his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. He never really did fit into the dark, brooding Batman role. That's more Ethan.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out. Remember; you have other relatives that also care about you, son." He pulled me into a one-armed hug as I let my arms hang at my sides, resting my head against the bat symbol on his chest, groaning in frustration. "Don't worry. We'll find them." I felt the sting of the injection gun against my upper arm and for the second time within 24 hours, I slumped as the sedative flew through me faster than the kidnappers' tranquilizer. I hadn't expected this at all from my Grandpa Wayne.

"Grnpa?" I could feel him lift me easily into his arms as my body quickly relaxed and my eyes drooped.

"Sleep, son. We'll take care of everything." I fell unconscious before he even took a step.

* * *

I was laying in a bed and could hear someone mumbling near me. A quiet click sounded in the room as I groaned a little, moving my head in the direction of the talking. Something was pressed against my upper arm again and I barely felt the sting when the injection gun went off. The drugs pulled me under again. That's when I decided that I hated sedatives.

* * *

As I slowly woke up again, I could feel that I was still in a bed, but the room was quiet. Someone had taken the liberty of getting the Kid Flash uniform off of me as I slept, boxers and a thin blanket were the only things covering me at the moment. Opening my eyes without making a sound, I took a look around at the room I was in. It had engraved Flash symbols on a few of the walls and the red and gold fan that hung low on the ceiling was sleek and already churning the air in the room. Most of the colors that made the room were either red, yellow, or gold. They must have put me in Kid Flash's room in Titans Tower.

I could tell that I'd been out for a long time as I stretched my stiff muscles. How long, I didn't know. Flipping off the red sheet, my gaze went to one of the two tables in the room. Laying perfectly folded in the middle of the table was a slightly different Kid Flash uniform. It looked sleeker, shinier, and much more high-tech than the old one I had been previously wearing, but it wasn't as flashy and look-at-me as the newer ones I'd seen in the Flash Museum. Stretching a few more times, I stumbled over to the table that had the costume, debating whether I wanted to actually try it on right before the door to the room slid open without a warning. I had the costume on in less than half a second before I took a step back from the door, eying the person standing there.

He was younger than I expected a Leaguer to be. Maybe 19 or 20 years old with brown hair that hung low over his mask. The mask covered his eyes but he stood in the doorway in an unsure posture. I could see the filled injection gun in his left hand. I didn't know his real name but the costume, the ring, and the symbol on his chest were unmistakable. A Green Lantern. A HUMAN Green Lantern at that. There hadn't been a human wearing that ring since my great-grandfather's time as The Flash. I took another step back as he raised the gun.

"Easy, Kid Flash. I really don't want to use this on you."

"Says the man with the injection gun already pointing at me."

"Its only a precaution. If you don't run off on me, I promise not to shoot you with another dose of speedster sedative." I put the table between him and me. Not that it would stop either of us. "I swear I'm not gonna hurt you, man." Forcing myself to relax, I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned my weight forward on my right leg, not realizing that I was in a classic speedster pose.

"Alright. I won't run off." He relaxed and put the injection gun on the dresser to his left.

"Good. We're getting somewhere." A few questions had been burning in my mind ever since I woke up.

"How long have I been out?"

"For about five days." My mind reeled.

"Five days!? Sedatives normally don't keep me under for five minutes!" A side of his mouth lifted in a half-smile.

"You can thank a previous Batman for that. For over two centuries, the League has had a tranquilizer specifically for knocking out speedsters. Or so they tell me. Its the only one of its kind. They use it for medical emergencies. One dose lasts about 40 hours and you've been given the shot three times in the last five days." That explained just about everything.

"Then have they figured everything out about the kidnapping? Is that why you didn't-" The Green Lantern shook his head.

"No one has any leads left. They've tried everything to locate the other speedsters on Earth, but haven't come up with anything. The only reason I haven't pumped you full of this stuff is that I'm hoping you might have a way of locating or contacting them that the League doesn't." I sat on the side of the bed as Green Lantern walked over.

"I don't. The Speed Force doesn't really work that way."

"Damn. I was afraid if that." He scratched the back of his head. "You know, if Batman finds out that I didn't put you under again, he'll have my head as a batarang." I cocked an eyebrow at him. "I was told that beside being the last known speedster, you're also one of Batman's grandsons. Now, none of us are taking this situation lightly. Least of all Batman and Superman. Since the Watchtower's off limits to everyone outside the League, both of them want you kept under lock and key in Titans Tower."

"Typical. And since they know people like me go stir-crazy locked up, they wanted me out cold until this speedster-napping thing is solved. Am I right?"

"Yeah, that's basically their plan. But as you can see, I'm not really going along with that plan. If someone did get into the Tower and to you, you'd be helpless. I'd rather give you a fighting chance to defend yourself. But you're still on Tower arrest so you can't actually go anywhere." I glared at him for a moment.

"Do you really expect to stop me from leaving Titans Tower?"

"No. But when was the last time you trained as a hero?" He got me there and he knew it. "Heh...I figured. I'll make you a deal." I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"I'm listening."

"If you want, I can help you train to get your strength and agility back to real speedster standards." A smile started crawling up my face until... "On one condition. You don't leave Titans Tower for anyone or anything until I say otherwise." I could tell my expression soured by the way he was looking at me. "I'm not the only Leaguer that's assigned to watch over you, kid. I could always let Wonder Woman or Green Arrow knock you out with another dose."

"Ugh. Fine. I won't leave the Tower under any circumstance."

"Good. So, since you're only...what 2 or 3 years younger than me? I don't want to call you Kid all the time."

"My name's Nick. Nick Allen." He smiled in recognition.

"Ahhh. From the official Allen speedster line eh? Now I know why the big wigs are so adamant on protecting you. Name's Teague. Teague Johnson." We shook hands briefly before a huge grin stretched on his face. "You know, the rest of the League and even the Lantern Corps tell me that whenever a human is picked to become a Green Lantern and join the Justice League, a Flash isn't too far behind."

"Superstitious nonsense. That's what they always say about Flashes and Green Lanterns. Whenever there's one that joins the League, the other isn't far behind." We looked at each other for a second.

"So what's taking you so long KID Flash?" I couldn't help but give him a playful punch in the arm before getting up and walking out of the room. He followed me at a trot with that already annoying grin on his face.

I tell myself that I still don't want to be a part of the Flash legacy. _What they say about Flashes and Green Lanterns is wrong. I'm only helping out temporarily as Kid Flash, then I'll be right back to my boring, mind-numbing life as a normal Central City teenager._ I keep repeating that to myself over and over down the hallway; but why did it suddenly feel so right and natural to be walking down the hallway in a speedster costume with a Green Lantern?

* * *

Chapter 3 End

* * *

Thank you for reading and please review!


	5. Useful Training?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 4: Useful Training?

* * *

Stretching my body as I looked at the equipment in front of me, Green Lantern and Superboy were both murmuring to each other, looking from me to Robin, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet next to me, ready to go. I had to admit that going up against Robin to test my agility on his training equipment was going a little too far. Especially for my first training session of the day. It really made me feel the few pounds of flab on my lean body that I had added since my Impulse days when I saw the obstacle course for the first time. Back then, there had only been five obstacles. Now? Ten of them. I may be faster than Robin, but while I've been relaxing as a normal teen, he's been training the whole time. Wonder Girl and the archer, the current Speedy, were sparring on the other side of the room as I stepped up to the beginning of the obstacle course next to Robin. Splice, the guy that looked like a human/computer/animal mix, put the last mat underneath the first piece of equipment in front of me.

"All is ready Green Lantern! This should be good..." I shot him a dirty look.

"I'm not that rusty, Splice." Green Lantern flew into the air as a green stopwatch appeared next to him from his ring.

"Lets hope not. Robin. Kid Flash. The two of you have four minutes to get to the finish line. You are allowed to use any powers or tools at your disposal but are forbidden to fall onto any mat. You must at least touch each piece of equipment once. Your time to beat is one minute and nine seconds. Robin's current best time is two minutes and fifty-six seconds from six months ago." I glanced at my cousin for half a second before turning back to the course. "If you do fall onto the mats, you must restart at the piece of equipment that kicked your ass. Ready." My leg muscles started clenching in anticipation. I've never lost a race in my life against anyone. "Set." My yellow boots adjusted in my stance. "GO!"

I was off like a shot, shooting through three obstacles in less than five seconds until the fourth obstacle forced me to slow down or get entangled in ropes. I was still ahead by one piece of equipment as I got to the seventh obstacle which was a very high rope net that I had to jump up to get to. Barely hanging on, I managed to start crawling upside-down along the net with my legs through the holes, aiming for the next obstacle when Robin caught up to me. He somehow managed to squeeze himself through the net and ended up above me; hopping across to the other end while I was still hanging on in the middle. As he made it to the next piece of equipment, the vibrations of him hopping on the net made my grip slip and before I knew it, I was on my back on the soft mat, gasping for breath after it got knocked out of me.

"Ow." My body was already getting sore as I rolled out of the mat, looking up to see Robin struggling with one of the last obstacles.

Even though my muscles were already protesting the abuse I was putting them through, I was not about to give up. Getting up to my feet, I backed up, eying one of the poles that were holding up the net. Superboy landed next to me but before he could say anything, I ran for the pole and raced straight up it to the net, leaping in midair above it with my arms out and my legs tucked up underneath me, hanging there for a second. I landed on top of the net, making it wobble crazily, but I rode it out, running on top of it before taking a speed-leap off the edge and hopping off a pole that was holding the next obstacle up before I landed right on the ninth piece of equipment directly in front of Robin.

My sudden landing startled him enough that he had to do a balance check on the moving beam, windmilling his arms for a moment before I grabbed his wrist. The two of us used each other's balance to get to the last piece of equipment. Robin grabbed one of the first turning grips, letting it whip him around to another one to the side. Pausing for a moment, I jumped up, trying to reach the top bars that were holding the grips, but as soon as my fingers brushed it, a jolt of electricity arched from the bar to my hand and I fell back to the little platform, shaking my tingling hand.

"Robin, time!" I looked over to see my cousin with his hands on his knees, taking a few deep breaths before he looked back at me with a smirk on his face.

Grumbling to myself that I'd been beaten for the first time, I grabbed a hold of one of the turning grips, but as soon as I put my full weight under it, it spun me around a few times before launching me down to the mat face-first. I tried again and again to get through the last obstacle, but I kept getting thrown down to the mat. Every time I put my weight on one of the grips, it would spin me a random way. By the twentieth time I was in the mat, Green Lantern called time. I was face-down on the mat, groaning as my arms twitched uncomfortably, cursing the tenth piece of equipment as I felt someone pat me on the back. I managed to lift my head up to see Robin smiling down at me.

"Nice try, KF. I sometimes have trouble with the last one too." Green Lantern and Superboy landed as I managed to crawl off the mat. Superboy and Robin helped me to my feet before Superboy clapped me on the back.

"Maybe you'll get it tomorrow." I groaned as he turned to Green Lantern and Splice. "Pay up, gentlemen. Robin won." Green Lantern reluctantly gave Superboy a $20 before turning to me.

"Alright. Thirty minute break before your next training exercise. I suggest you rest for ten minutes before you brush up on your sparring skills for this next one." I gave him a glare as I sat back on the mat again.

Thankfully, it didn't take ten minutes for my body to stop hurting so I ran to the kitchen to find something to quickly shove down my throat. I was raiding the fridge when Ethan came in out of costume.

"Hey, KF." I glanced behind me with a slice of pizza already in my mouth and smiled at him. "Thanks for helping me out with that one obstacle." I took the piece of cold pizza out of my mouth.

"No problem, man." Shoving the pizza back in my mouth, I pulled a large bowl of cut-up watermelon out of the fridge and set it on the island counter next to where Ethan was leaning as I took one last look in the fridge before closing it, gnawing my way through the pizza in my mouth as Ethan spoke.

"I'm surprised Green Lantern didn't put you under again. He was under strict orders from the League to use the sedative." I shrugged as I swallowed.

"He said that if someone attacked the Tower, he'd rather give me a fighting chance than leave me helpless." Grabbing a piece of watermelon, I shoved it into my mouth, sucking on the juices.

"It makes sense. All of us hated seeing you lying there unconscious day after day." He grabbed a smaller piece and stuck it in his mouth, swallowing it as I grabbed another larger piece and shoved it into my mouth. Ethan stepped back from me for a moment, looking at me. "I'm glad you like the suit. That older one you had on was too outdated." I cocked an eyebrow at him, not able to talk with the watermelon drooling out of my mouth. "I designed your suit about a year ago when I got bored one night. Every element about it from the speedster boots to the comm-link I upgraded. The style I guessed at, but since you chose the Bart Allen Kid Flash costume above the others in the Flash Museum, I chose the right inspiration." Managing to swallow the watermelon piece, I smiled at him.

"Yeah, it reminded me of the Bart Allen costume more than the others. Thanks, Ethan. But why did you make one in the first place?"

"I guess I knew you'd someday be back. Once a hero, always a hero. Especially us, cousin." I smirked at Ethan as he put another watermelon piece into his mouth before going to change into a fresh Robin costume.

The two of us were back in the training room about twenty minutes later, watching Superboy and Wonder Girl spar; both using their strength until it ended in a draw when Green Lantern came in along with a 17 year old guy I'd never seen before. The new guy grasped Robin's hand in greeting.

"You're late, Aqualad." The newcomer's eyes fell on me.

"Whoa. What'd I miss?" Superboy shrugged next to me.

"Not much. Robin beat Kid Flash in the obstacle course like I knew he would." Aqualad smiled and held his hand out to me before we shook hands.

"I'm Aqualad. You can call me Matt when I am out of costume. Its a privilege to meet you Kid Flash, I've heard much about you." I smiled back at him, but before I could introduce myself, Green Lantern got our attention.

"Alright Titans, we're each going to play a little game." He held up three pairs of old-fashioned metal handcuffs. "Its called catch the speedster." My eyes widened as I stuttered.

"W-wa-wa-wait a minute, what...what do you mean catch the speedster!?" Green Lantern put his hands up to get me to calm down a bit.

"Easy, Kid Flash. You'll have a sporting chance. Give me a moment to explain. Now, in light of what's been happening lately, we need to try and make it harder for Kid Flash to be caught, so this is going to be good for all of us." I grumbled under my breath before Wonder Girl elbowed me. "One by one, each one of us is going to get into the sparring ring with Kid Flash. Our job is to get these handcuffs around his wrists AND ankles, effectively immobilizing him." I could hear a few snickers among the others. "But Kid Flash will also have handcuffs that he needs to put around our wrists for him to win. We can use whatever is at our disposal whether it be powers or gadgets. I myself will start first. Kid?" He stepped into the ring and held a pair of handcuffs out to me, smiling. "Lets see how long it takes."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I stepped into the ring, grabbing the handcuffs before streaking to the other side of the ring. Green Lantern palmed the two pairs he had as he stepped into the middle, watching how weary I was of him. His power ring started glowing as I streaked to another part of the ring behind him. I took one glance at the Titans, who seemed to be taking bets before I was surrounded by green light that lifted me into the air. Handcuffs snapped around my wrists before I started vibrating violently. The green energy couldn't take the sudden strain and I landed on my feet, starting to run in a circle underneath him as I vibrated my arms, feeling the handcuffs go through my wrists and fall to the ground.

The wind that I was creating blasted through the training room as I got a chance to snap one side of my handcuffs onto his left wrist, but before I knew it, I face-planted into the mat. Green Lantern, in all the confusion, managed to actually use the wind I had generated to get the handcuffs to snap around my ankles. I felt his knee go into my back; not too hard but just to keep me down. He dragged my arms behind my back as I struggled under him and the second pair of handcuffs snapped around my wrists. He fell back, catching his breath as I grumbled.

"Nice first try. It was actually harder than I thought." I heard the others snickering as I vibrated my wrists and ankles out of the handcuffs, standing up again in a bit of a sour mood.

"What does this do for me?" Green Lantern unlocked the handcuff that I'd managed to get around his wrist.

"It shows the weak points you might have when under the pressure of being captured by any possible kidnappers. Its very useful for the rest of us too."

Out of eight matches, I was caught four times. Green Lantern, Superboy, Aqualad, and Robin were the only ones to fully catch me. It took awhile for Superboy, and Aqualad totally cheated by pulling a tidal wave out of the pipes surrounding the training room, but Robin had me on my face within fifteen seconds of our match. He relished my capture by sitting on me for an extra five seconds, but I was grateful he was the last one I had to go up against, so I let him gloat as I tried to catch my breath. Luckily, or unluckily as it might be, the Titans' alarm went off then, ending the training for the day as Robin gathered his team and left Green Lantern and I at the Tower to fend for ourselves.

For three days, Green Lantern pushed me through unusual training. When he was convinced that I'd conquer one, he would move on to a different tactic again and again until the morning of the fifth day. I trotted into the training room, ready for another round of catch the speedster when I heard shouts coming from an open door on the other side of the room that I'd never seen open before. Peeking inside, I saw everyone but Superboy in a small control room that was reading out specs on a dozen different screens. Through a thick, plexiglass window, there was a larger room that looked completely made out of metal, like a high-tech lab. Everyone was rooting Superboy on as I saw him running on a treadmill that was half the size of the room. He was topping out at just under the speed of sound. Superboy suddenly leapt into the air, floating and catching his breath before Matt turned to see me.

"This is an exciting day, Nick." I cocked an eyebrow at my newest friend.

"Dude, what's going on? Is that what I think it is?" Teague, out of his green glowing costume for once, glanced at me as the treadmill powered down from Superboy's run.

"Its a treadmill built a long time ago for measuring high velocity beings. Superboy was testing it out for us to see if it was still functioning properly before you jump on." The boy of steel knocked on the thick door on the side of the control room. Splice, who finally told me his name was Seth last night while watching a movie, opened it for Superboy and gestured for me to come with him as he went through the door and down the few steps.

"Lets see what you can really do, speedster."

I followed him, not noticing Ethan and Teague flipping switches in the control room as I hopped down the few stairs and up onto the treadmill. Splice pointed out a few things to me, like the bar that was a few feet above my head that, if something went wrong, I could jump and hang onto while the treadmill slowed down. As I stretched my legs on the treadmill, I watched as things came out of the walls that looked a lot like lightning rods. It was true that the static electricity that came out of my muscles could give someone a pretty good jolt and the electric current would only become stronger the faster I ran.

Splice closed the heavy door behind him. It took another minute before the others were ready for me to begin. I began at a slow jog, testing how the treadmill moved. It kept a perfect pace with me as I started a slower run. A speaker in the room screeched to life before Ethan's voice came through.

"Come on, Kid Flash. Open up the throttle. Let loose. Show them what a real speedster can do!" I took a deep breath as the electricity from my body started arching to the rods around the room. _ They want me to cut loose? Open up the throttle that I've kept a lid on for so long? Alright!_

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Chapter 4 End

* * *

Thank you for reading and please review!


	6. Speedster Keep Away

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 5: Speedster Keep Away

* * *

I could feel the lightning course through my body as I let go of the leash that I've had on my speed for years. My breathing became strangely easier as I kicked myself into higher and higher gears, feeling the delicious release of running again. I heard the boom when I passed the speed of sound, but I kept running, really cutting loose. The electricity that came off of my body kept arching to the lightning rods that were around me as I became a mere yellow and red blur on the heavy-duty treadmill. I could hear Teague and the Titans shouting in the control room for me to go faster, faster, FASTER.

I kicked it into high gear; the electricity from me flew everywhere in the room; the lightning rods couldn't quite keep up with the amount I was generating. As I hit 9/10ths the way to the speed of light, a feeling caught my attention. There was a strange uneasiness crawling through my body. Like something or someone was screaming desperately for me to stop; like the Speed Force itself was trying to get me to slow down.

Without another thought, I leapt up, grabbing onto the bar that was above the treadmill and hung there, breathing deeply as the sensation subsided along with the static electricity I had been generating. Ethan's worried voice came through the speakers before Superboy opened the door and was at my side within a second. I must have been shaking a little on the bar because his arm was around my waist not a moment later, easily supporting my weight and clearly worried that I might fall onto the still racing treadmill and go shooting across the room into the wall if my grip slipped.

"You alright?" I glanced back at him and looked down at the moving treadmill.

"Yeah, I think so. I just haven't gone that fast in a long time." When I let go of the bar, Superboy floated us down to the floor. I had to reassure the others a few more times and suffer through Ethan and Teague's physical exam before everyone relaxed. Ethan gave me a probing look as I walked past him with Teague and Andrew while I rolled my shoulders, still a little uneasy at the echoes of the sensation that came from the Speed Force.

Teague was called back to the Watchtower later that day because of another Leaguer I hadn't met named The Animal. Apparently, Teague hadn't checked in with the League for over a week, and they'd become suspicious. Both he and I were busted as soon as The Animal silently walked into the Tower's living room where Teague, Andrew, Seth, and I were playing a video game out of costume; yelling and shoving to make each other mess up. Before any of us knew it, five Leaguers, including a very pissed-off Batman, were standing behind the couch. Luckily, Teague somehow convinced the League not to put me under again and he returned during our dinner of pizza and soda.

Over the next three days, Green Lantern and the Titans put me back on the treadmill four times, twice under the supervision of Batman, who kept his eyes glued to the consoles the whole time. That horrible feeling that something was off with the Speed Force came back every time. The last time I'd been on the treadmill, I tried to go past the feeling, getting only 4,000 mph away from the speed of light when my right leg seized up; I barely managed to leap for the bar, literally hanging by one hand's fingers. Wanda had her arms around my middle within two seconds, keeping me from falling. Needless to say, the door had to be replaced since she had to go THROUGH it to get to me in time, so they couldn't put me on the treadmill anymore until the door was fixed.

That was six hours ago. Now? Teague and I were sprawled on the huge couch, snacks and wrappers littered the couch and floor around us as the action movie we'd put in an hour ago got to a good car chase. No one else was with us since Batman left and the Titans had gotten an alert over an hour ago right at sunset. Before the best gunfight/car chase started, I hopped to my feet, going to grab another 2-liter of soda since Teague dared me to chug the last one.

"Teague, pause it, man! I paused it for you earlier!" He groped for the remote in the wrappers on the couch as I opened the second fridge that held the drinks. As soon as I got the soda and shut the refrigerator door, the television and all the lights went out. For a second, the only light in the room was the weak moonlight filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind the colossal-screen television before Teague's ring lit up. He looked over the back of the couch at me.

"What did you do, Nick?" I held up the 2-liter of soda along with my hands.

"I didn't do it, man. Maybe Ethan forgot to pay the bill." I saw his eye-roll at the ancient joke before he got off the couch, walking towards me as his costume crawled along his body from his ring. "Do you think a fuse blew?"

"Not likely. Last I heard, the Tower hadn't used fuses for the last fifty years. Maybe the core needs to be replaced. Do you know where it is?" I shrugged, clueless as Green Lantern walked towards the door. He had to crank open the normally-sliding door with a hidden latch before walking into the pitch-black hallway. "There has to be some stairs or something that leads down."

"Down?" I was right behind him as his ring came up with a green blueprint of the Tower that we both looked over.

"Yep. Down. Its in an underground level. If I'm looking at this right, there should be a door to the stairs a few feet to our right." I kept close to his back since I didn't have night-vision. Two minutes and a costume change later, I looked down the middle of a very long winding staircase. Green Lantern floated up into the air above the black abyss as I looked down at the darkness uncertainly.

"How am I gonna – wha!" I was lifted into the air and to his side before I could finish my sentence. "Ju-just don't drop me! You know speedsters can't fly." He and I sank down the gap between the staircases.

"Just calm down and enjoy the ride." The green blueprint came up between us again, tracking our slow progress as we sank lower and lower down the Tower. We were only halfway down when Green Lantern stopped us in midair, looking up with narrowed eyes. I looked up and then back at him in confusion.

"What?"

"I thought I heard something."

"Dude, don't make me paranoid." He held up his hand to get me to be quiet as a strange clanging echo sounded down the stairwell and I looked up as some dust came floating down at us. "Whaa-what was that?"

Green Lantern floated us onto the closest stairs as an echoing bang came from below us. It sounded like one of the doors were forced open so hard that it slammed back against the metal wall. Dimming the light significantly, Lantern and I held our breaths, trying to listen for other sounds. It took a few moments until we heard the faint sounds of footsteps and whispered voices on the stairs coming from above and below us. Trying not to make a sound, both of us went for the nearest door, getting out of the stairwell and down a hallway as quickly as we could. I couldn't help but look at Green Lantern's grave expression as he stopped and leaned against the wall, keeping his eyes trained on the corner we just came around.

"GL?" He didn't look at me but his hand slowly crept up to his ear. "You don't think..." Pressing his comm-link, he glanced at me before looking back at where we'd just come from.

"Green Lantern to Watchtower. I've got a situation in Titans Tower." He paused for a few seconds. "Yeah, they're here. The electricity is out...he's here with me but this is isn't gonna be easy to get out of." I turned my back on him and reached for my own comm-link.

"Kid Flash to Teen Titans. Where are you guys?" Splice answered.

"We're in the middle of a chase here. Have a problem?" I leaned on the wall next to the softly glowing Leaguer.

"You could say that. I think the Tower's been infiltrated. The power's out and Green Lantern and I are stuck in the middle levels."

"Affirmative. I can see the Tower now from a distance and...there's some sort of ship hovering near it. Not to mention a bunch of other smaller craft." He paused a moment. "We're splitting up. Hang tight to Lantern until we get there." Green Lantern lifted me off the floor with his ring as he started flying down the hallway.

"Window. Window. Need a window." I could feel the warmth of the green shield surrounding me as he towed me behind him while he flew down the corridor looking for a way out of the Tower. "League's on the way but it might take about twenty minutes for them to get here since the Zeta's out in the Tower." He started wrenching open doors.

"Twenty minutes!? Do you know how long that is!?"

"Yeah, but don't remind me." As he pried open another door, something pinged off of the shield surrounding me, landing on the floor. I got a glimpse of the dart before Green Lantern took off down the hallway, keeping me close behind him.

We flew straight through a group of black-clad soldiers that were just down the hall from us, knocking them askew as a door blasted off its hinges ahead of us. Green Lantern barreled through the destroyed door with me still close behind him. Easily getting through the men on the other side of the destroyed door, we entered another stairwell and shot straight up, hearing several pings against the green shield as darts were shot from all angles. I could hear and see flashes of men shouting all around the stairwell as we streaked past them, heading for the roof. When we were only five floors away from getting out, a nauseatingly familiar sound started bouncing throughout the whole stairwell. The green around me faltered as my head spun from the high pitch. Landing on one of the top floor stairwells, the shield around me disappeared as both Green Lantern and I fell to our knees, clutching our ears.

"What is...that screeching!?"

Because he couldn't concentrate from the mind-numbing sound, the green light from Green Lantern's ring surrounded him in a protective shield, but left me completely unprotected. I could hear people's shouts echoing off the walls as I felt the tell-tale sting of a tranquilizer dart hit my left shoulder. I groaned, as I felt Green Lantern grab my wrist, but his grip slipped when I fell to my side on the stairs. Another dart hit me in the back as my body got heavier and heavier.

"Lantern..." I reached pathetically for him as my eyes fogged over. Someone grabbed my arm and flipped me onto my stomach, tying my arms securely behind my back and tying my ankles together before lifting me off the stairs, taking me away from the green glow. Losing consciousness as I was tossed over someone's shoulder, the last thing I heard was Green Lantern yelling for me before the tranquilizer dragged me under.

* * *

In the few minutes I was out, all hell had broken loose in the air surrounding the Tower. My eyes opened as the guy that had me over his shoulder ran for a small ship hovering on the side of Titans Tower while explosions were going off in the air all around us. He was only ten feet from the aircraft when I started violently vibrating, making him vibrate and trip. After dropping me a few feet from the edge of the roof, the guy's staggering momentum sent him barreling into the waiting ship. Before I could find my way out of the bindings that held my arms and legs together, a blue-clad arm had me around my middle and I soared through the air. I got a glimpse of heat-vision as my new captor destroyed a ship in his path.

"Are you alright, KF?" Superboy kept a good grip on me as my wrists and ankles vibrated free of the restraints. A dizzying sensation came over me as I saw how high we were.

"I'd feel better on the ground!" He dodged an oncoming hover-bike.

"That's not exactly an option right now. We – gah!" An explosion blasted the two of us apart, sending me in an opposite direction from Superboy.

Falling about thirty feet, I slammed onto the hood of a hover-car, knocking the wind out of me. Groaning as I tried to fill my lungs again, someone grabbed my ankle and started to pull me towards the inside of the vehicle where a few soldiers yelled through headsets. As I took one narrowed look at the soldier that had me, I kicked him in the face with my other foot before I flipped onto my stomach and vibrated my arms into the hood of their car, starting to yank wires out of the engine. It worked as the car started losing altitude but that didn't stop another one from swooping in and smashing into the one I was riding on. I leaped off of the vehicle a millisecond before they collided and fell fifty feet, spotting another enemy vehicle below me that saw me coming. Before I landed on the hover car's roof, Wonder Girl swooped in and caught me in midair, flying away with three hover-cars and two small ships in hot pursuit.

"Hold on!" She shot down for the water with me hanging onto her arm for dear life, swooping past ships of all sizes that were doing their best to take down Superboy and Wonder Girl to get to me. On the way down, I got a glimpse of a green construct, which meant Green Lantern was back in the fight.

We were only twenty-five feet above the water when a ship slammed into the two of us. Wonder Girl took the brunt of the collision, but I was thrown into the air and a few seconds later, hit the water hard enough to stun me. Floating on my back with pins and needles going up and down my limbs, I saw Wonder Girl forty feet above me take a hit before a rebreather was put over my mouth and I was pulled ten feet under the water. Aqualad's smiling face came into my line of sight before a huge splash came from the surface of the water above us. Getting me out of the way of the sinking hover-car, Aqualad kept a good grip around my chest as he swam through the water, heading for shore.

We emerged underneath a bunch of docks half a mile from the raging aerial battle. As Aqualad kept an arm around my torso to keep me afloat, I took off the rebreather and gulped in air, still feeling a little woozy from the fall into the water and the recent game of speedster keep away. Treading closer to a low dock, I heard Aqualad quietly call out to my cousin.

"Robin, I've got him. He's okay." _I wouldn't say okay exactly. My head's pounding out my heartbeat from smacking the water wrong and my back's sore from hitting that one hover-car's hood._ I heard Robin only a few feet ahead of us.

"Is he awake?" I looked up to see his chest, head, and arms hanging off of a dock five feet above the water, reaching down for us.

"Yeah, I'm awake. A little beat-up though." A relieved smile appeared on his face as Aqualad stopped right underneath him, letting me reach up to grab one of his outstretched arms. Robin only got me a little out of the water with one arm as he reached with his other arm for something on the dock. My waist and legs were still in the water when he pulled out the injection gun, putting it to my forearm in his grip. "Wh-what are you doing!?" I thrashed once before Aqualad grabbed onto my lower body as Robin gave me an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, Kid Flash. Its the League's orders." He shot the speedster sedative into my forearm as I struggled against his grip, trying to get him to drop me back into the water but I didn't last five seconds as the sedatives did their job. I took one more look into Robin's deeply troubled face before I blacked out, hanging helplessly between people I thought were my friends.

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Chapter 5 End

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Thank you for reading and please review!


	7. Questioning Authority (Robin's POV)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 6: Questioning Authority

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(Robin's POV)

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_I knew the League was wrong about this. What could they be thinking!? This isn't the way to solve this mystery._

Kid Flash lay unconscious at our feet. I could tell Aqualad was uncomfortable with what we were ordered to do to our newest teammate, but when the League gives orders, they are always obeyed. Mostly.

"I don't like this, Robin. You can't be serious about letting them just have him. He's the last speedster Earth has." I crouched down, taking three tracking bugs out of my utility belt and placing them in Kid Flash's left boot, his right glove, and against the middle of his collarbone. After I placed those, I activated the three other tracking devices that I had built into his suit without anyone the wiser.

"We can't go against the League about this. But I never told them that he wouldn't be going alone." Wonder Girl floated up from the water behind us, dripping wet.

"Aren't you two ready yet? Superboy and Green Lantern can't keep them busy forever." Speedy ran down the dock with two duffel bags full of black clothes.

"Got them. C'mon, we need to hurry up." She tossed the bags at us before she knelt next to Kid Flash, taking out two pairs of electric bindings that we'd found on a number of black-clad soldiers from the Flash Museum kidnapping.

As the three of us changed, Speedy tied Kid Flash up and activated the oxygen in the modified mask before putting it over his nose and mouth. After making sure Matt and Wanda looked adequate, I crouched next to our speedster, checking to make sure he was secured but not tied too tightly. Matt hefted our limp teammate over his shoulder and started down the dock for the hover car we were going to use to get into the main ship. As he set Kid Flash carefully into the vehicle, I climbed behind the wheel with Wanda in the seat next to me.

"Do you think we look old enough to fool them?" Tanya hopped into the seat behind me, more than ready to go into deep cover.

"We'll be fine, Wanda. I'd be more worried about what they might do to Kid Flash if we're separated from him." I glanced back at her.

"That won't happen. One of us will be within reach of him at all times. Understood?" My closest (currently helpless) cousin wasn't about to be put in any situation without immediate back-up from one of his teammates. Justice League be damned; Kid Flash is a Titan, and I myself am the leader of the Titans.

I activated the vehicle and sped out from under the docks, making Matt and Tanya get a grip on Kid Flash so he wouldn't slide around. We shot through the aerial battle and straight to the main ship that was still hovering far over the Tower. As soon as we were near, a hatch opened on the bottom of the ship and I maneuvered the hover car into the cargo bay in front of several other ships and hover cars that were actually covering us from behind. The hatch closed quicker than I expected and we were on the enemy's ship. Wanda shot me a glance as several of the black-clad soldiers advanced on our hover car, all weapons at the ready until they saw Kid Flash out cold in the back. They all cheered and congratulated us on a job well done. We were officially behind enemy lines.

* * *

I could feel the Gs as the ship rocketed out of Earth's atmosphere. Strapped into a chair near the cell that Kid Flash was in, I glanced at the others to check on their reactions to the force the ship was putting us all through. Wanda looked bored, Tanya had her teeth clenched, and it looked like Matt had already passed out. None of us were expecting to go into space. That was why no one found the speedsters yet. Everyone had been concentrating on searching the Earth. Not off-world. But that still didn't explain why we were headed to the one place not one of us had ever expected to be en route to.

As soon as I was aboard the ship, I got to a computer and downloaded the flight plan. When I saw where we were headed, my mind reeled. The ship full of trained speedster kidnappers was headed for the Justice League Watchtower on the Moon. It would take us 30 hours just to get there. That was most of the time we had before Kid Flash would start to stir; and I only had one dose of the speedster sedative. It wasn't until I delved a little deeper into the flight plans that I found out we'd only be at the Watchtower for an hour and a half before traveling on to a more permanent location. ETA to the last stop: another 30 hours. I immediately started planning with Wanda and Tanya about getting into the Watchtower and getting at least two more doses of sedative while Matt, finally waking up halfway there, would stay to watch over our helpless speedster.

I was estimating on only being out of the docked ship for 30 minutes. My estimation was extremely off. The Watchtower base was much bigger than I had originally expected, and finding the med lab without arising suspicion took at least twice as long. While going through the Watchtower's hallways, I understood why it had been so easy for the kidnappers to be anonymous to the entire League. The enemy's ship had been cloaked to look like a cargo ship long before getting close to the Watchtower and the hallways were filled with personnel wearing the exact same outfit the speedster kidnappers had all changed into before docking. There were at least twenty five personnel to each hero registered in the Justice League. Even if someone were to get onto the kidnappers' ship, the area currently holding Kid Flash was behind a false metal wall that had been made well.

All those precautions the kidnappers took to hide right under the League's nose didn't quite help us though. Our civilian faces were known to certain heroes in the League that we had to avoid at all costs or else blow our cover. It was only ten minutes before the ship was to leave that we managed to get back with only a few close calls with Green Arrow and Batman. While we waited for the ship to disengage, I mentally tallied the amount of people that were going down the same hallway we were on the ship and compared it to before we docked at the Watchtower. By my calculations, there were only about 1/3 of the crew members left on the ship. Why would 2/3rds of the kidnappers be staying on the Watchtower so close to the heroes that were trying to find the speedsters?

Questions flew through my mind as the ship set off from the Watchtower and we reunited with Matt who hadn't moved from Kid Flash's side. After about 4 hours from leaving the Watchtower, the four of us were left to "guard" the prisoner for the rest of the trip which was fine with us. It let us plan and speculate what was going on and where we were headed without being overheard. Both Wanda and Matt wanted to contact the League on what we already knew, but something kept bothering me about the speedster kidnappers. As the other three talked quietly, I sifted through what was nagging at the edge of my brain.

Ever since the heroes found out that speedsters were disappearing, they'd been wondering why them and not the more "powerful" members of the hero community like the Kryptonian or Amazon bloodlines. I had been right along with them until I started putting together several different things about the kidnappings and the speedsters themselves.

Contrary to popular belief, speedsters are the most powerful and most unpredictable heroes there are. Everyone always underestimates them. They may not be the strongest physically, but their speed and stamina more than make up for the lack of physical strength. With their speed comes a very long list of other abilities they have. One of the most aggravating to other heroes and most troubling to villains is the speedsters' ability to think at an accelerated pace. With a mind that can think faster than the speed of sound and a body that could go as fast if not faster, it is almost impossible to catch one if you don't know what you're doing.

Almost.

Someone that truly knows the ins and outs of speedsters could catch the speed demons but they are notoriously hard to keep in one place for long due to their other speed-related abilities. Which would explain the mask and several other "toys" that each of the kidnappers have in their arsenal. Each object, from the small screaming speakers to the electric bindings, were custom made to take down the fastest beings on Earth. Very few people know the intricate details about speedster abilities. I happen to have very fast relatives due to the West line in my family, so I know a lot that others don't. That is what was bugging me. Other than family and the highest Leaguers, no one else really knew how to trap and immobilize them successfully for more than ten or fifteen minutes. And yet, here we were on a long flight to who knows where in space on the track of speedsters that had been missing for several weeks.

Since there hadn't been a Flash for more than 50 years, there really were no official Flash Rogues left. Most of the villains that speedsters went against were petty thieves or villains from the other heroes. None of the villains knew that much about speedsters except that they are extremely frustrating to fight against and they always turn the tides of any world, galaxy, or even universal crisis. But someone must have really dug for the information to get as far as the kidnappers have.

"Hey, E?" I glanced at Tanya for a moment to let her know I was listening. "What if...when we get to wherever we're going...they try and put Kid Flash to death right away?" My eyes narrowed for a moment.

"Perhaps we could make it look like he escaped somehow." Wanda cocked a blond eyebrow.

"How do we do that? There's no hiding the fact that he's out cold." I looked at Kid Flash and then at her as a plan came to mind.

"What would any of you do if you found yourself captured and surrounded before seeing a door on the other side of the room that could be your only means of escape?" Matt smiled, understanding.

"We'd take down anyone between us and that door."

"Exactly. We need to find more of the kidnappers' clothes. T?" She nodded and went out the door.

It was a very long trip to wherever we were headed. The only semi-exciting thing was me getting to shoot my cousin with sedatives again when he started moving a little in the cell. Only twice did anyone come back to check that everything was okay during the whole trip. They barely stayed a minute to look at Kid Flash before heading back out. Apparently, guarding the prisoner was the most boring job on the ship but we were content on making sure nothing happened to him.

An announcement rang through the ship that we'd be at what they simply called "The Base" in about forty-five minutes. It was ten minutes later that we put our plan into action. While Matt and I freed and dressed Nick for his part of the unconscious soldier, Wanda and Tanya were making a fairly quiet mess of the whole room worthy of a raging speedster. I managed to tuck Nick's cowl and wingtips into the thicker part of the black turtleneck sweater after getting the knockout mask off of him and tossing it into a corner while making sure none of his costume showed out of any part of his clothes. The shoes of his costume were another story altogether. I managed to find a can of matte black spray-paint and as Matt held his feet up, I sprayed the boots until it almost looked like the black combat boots we were wearing.

We only had twenty minutes left until we landed. I could feel the ship slowing down as three of us took our places on the floor, me being the closest to Nick, while Wanda took the cage he had been in and aimed at the wall, throwing it just enough to make it crack wide open. The sound that reverberated from the impact was louder than any of us expected. Wanda drooped herself over a broken crate as the rest of us started acting like we'd been recently tossed around. About twenty black-clad men busted through the door ten seconds later, weapons drawn and looking all around the wrecked room. I yelled at them as I held my stomach.

"The bastard! He somehow...got out! We didn't have a chance." I groaned as the men split up to make sure the others were okay as a few ran out of the room, yelling down the hallway that Kid Flash had gotten out. One of the soldiers that helped me up off the floor looked down at Nick.

"As soon as we land, we'll get you guys to the medic." I looked down at Nick in concern.

"He brought down Tom first then the rest of us. Tom fell like a bag of concrete. That devil was too fast for us." The soldier shook his head, sighing in frustration.

"They're not gonna be happy about this. This is the first speedster that got loose since we started two months ago!" _Two months!? They've been at this for two months!? How come we hadn't noticed sooner!?_

Twenty-five minutes later, the four of us were fake limping and groaning behind two soldiers that were carrying Nick to the medic as the other soldiers were scouring the ship for the supposed escaped speedster. There must have been a mastermind behind this whole thing since the soldiers seemed pretty dim-witted. As we passed a set of double doors, I could feel my heartbeat speed up when I saw a number of villains from several different heroes' galleries milling around what looked to be a giant conference table. I only got a glimpse at who was sitting at the head of the table. One of Superman's main enemies, Greed, was sitting calmly with his hands folded and a wicked smile on his face. That wasn't what shocked me though.

_How could I have not thought of him?_ Between all the heroes, only the speedsters had to deal with constant Rogue team-ups. That's why the Flash's Rogues are infamous. But the man standing behind Greed was so much more than a mere Flash Rogue. He had been the brains of countless team-ups between countless villains and had ferociously fought every Flash that had come up through the decades. He was the missing puzzle piece. The mastermind behind everything.

Vandal Savage.

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Chapter 6 End

* * *

Thank you for reading and please review!


	8. File IL: Speedsters

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 7: File IL: Speedsters

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Something was off. I didn't feel a bed underneath me like the last time I'd woken up from speedster sedatives. Remembering my old Impulse training, I kept my eyes closed and stayed still, using my other senses to assess where I was. Laying on my back, I could feel cold metal surround me on three sides. It felt and smelled like I'd been put in a musty metal box. Opening my eyes by a fraction of an inch, I saw gray not six inches above my nose but something was strange about the metal box. Below my feet and above my head, I didn't feel closed-in. Craning my head up, I saw a grate two feet away. While I was unconscious, someone had shoved me into a ventilation shaft. A pretty tight one at that.

Wriggling carefully, I managed to eventually flip myself onto my stomach with my hands and arms above my head, dragging myself the little way to the grate and popping it open before pulling myself out of the ventilation into a windowless storage room. Holding my breath for a few moments, I waited to see if anyone heard the clatter of the grate, but no one came in to investigate. I felt for the cowl around my neck, looking down at myself and wondering who'd put me in the black clothes that were over my Kid Flash costume. I was out of the unfamiliar clothing and had the mask over my face again within a second, cursing whoever spray-painted my yellow boots black.

Taking a few slow steps to the door, I paused, hearing muffled voices on the other side of the sliding metal door. Kicking into speed-mode the moment I saw the door give a crack of an opening, I put the grate back onto the ventilation opening and scrambled behind one of the free-standing shelves. A black-clad, masked soldier came in, talking to another soldier that must have been walking past the door. The door closed behind the slightly shorter man as he went over to where the ventilation shaft I'd just crawled out of was. Right as the guy pried off the grate, I pounced, capturing the guy in a choke-hold from behind. He struggled spectacularly, reaching back and grabbing one of my wingtips before I managed to knock him out with a blow to the back of the neck.

After shoving the guy into the ventilation shaft head first, I stuck the grate back on and went to the side of the door, listening for any other guards. The hallway was quiet so I stepped in front of the door to let it slide open obediently. I saw another soldier slowly walking away down one side of the hallway, so I slipped out and down the other way, making it around a corner before the other soldier spotted me. As I sped through countless hallways at speed, I noticed there weren't many other people around for such a large, windowless place. There was also something very strange about the gravity of the place: I felt much lighter than I normally was. Could this be where the other speedsters had been taken?

I had two objectives running through my head as I went down hallways. Number 1: find out where I was. Number two: escape from said place. Most of the doors I came across opened automatically, but a cursory glance into the rooms gave me nothing to help me escape. _Storage, cleaning closet, storage, storage, restroom, storage, restroom, cleaning closet, storage, bedroom, bedroom, bedroom, bedroom, storage, bedroom, bedroom. At least I know people are around here, but where are they? I must have woken up during some sort of skeleton crew shift. _

Hallways led into hallways that led into other hallways. I finally hit a room through double doors that looked beyond promising. I'd stepped into a huge conference room that was elaborately set up for about 50 people. 3-D Projectors were on each side of the four walls pointing to the middle of the conference table while televisions hung all around the room. It reminded me of some sort of high-tech military debriefing room. Along with the projectors and televisions, there were pieces of glass in front of each seat that would project plans to the seats' occupants. Movement at the head seat's glass console caught my eye. Speeding to the other end, I saw the screen count down a few last seconds, and then saw the words "Landing Achieved" before the screen went blank.

"Wonder what that meant..."

Sitting in the head chair, I inspected the immediate area and found a clear keyboard attached and tucked underneath the table. Pulling it out, I pressed a few random keys to see if I could wake up the screen in front of me since I didn't see anything resembling a mouse. The screen in front of me came to life and I saw another countdown that simply said "Watchtower Defenses" above a one minute countdown. Could I be in the Watchtower?

Silently cursing my lackluster hacking skills, I started typing at the computer, trying to quickly see what it had on it. Less than five seconds later, I'd found a file simply titled "IL: Speedsters". There were only two presentations in the file: "Locations" and "Holding"; but there was another file next to the IL: Speedster file named "JL Watchtower". As soon as I clicked on the Locations presentation, the double doors locked and the room came to life.

The 3-D projectors lit up the middle of the large table with a see-through replica of the Earth with red and purple dots around the world. Not wanting to get caught watching something I probably shouldn't be, I fast forward the whole presentation as a chill went through my body. Whoever was behind this had charted the locations of speedsters around the globe for the last fifty years. Along with each speedster on the map came a breakdown of their abilities and fastest speed clocked at. On the many purple dotted speedsters, there was a large "Deceased" stamped over their picture, and the red dots had a "Captured" over the pictures. One of the many dots on Central City blinked from purple to yellow to red in a quick succession. The presentation ended on the blinking one. It was a picture of me from my Impulse days. A stamp over my picture read "Possible Unknown Kid Flash".

The Locations presentation started and ended within twenty seconds but the activation of the computer must have alerted some sort of security in the place cause as soon as I started the Holding presentation, something slammed into the double doors. I didn't get a chance to watch the Holding presentation since I stopped it but I did get to take a peek at what was in the JL Watchtower file and read a little on the plan to attack the Watchtower when one of the doors was wrenched open. Someone must have gotten a glimpse of me as I vibrated through the only other door that led out of the room. Alarms blared through the empty hallways as I ran, knocking anyone out that popped up. I managed to vibrate through another locked door and came face-to-face with an awesome sight. I'd found a closed-off control room with a window that looked out onto a desolate, gray landscape.

"The Moon?"

I put my hands against the glass, looking for the blue sphere that would be Earth in all the black of space. I could see the yellow-white glowing pebble that was the Sun, but I didn't see any blue. That meant I couldn't be on the Watchtower. The door that I'd gone through whooshed open and I spun around to face at least fifteen soldiers all with guns leveled at me. I stood right in the middle of the window, knowing if they actually tried to shoot at me, they might hit the one-foot thick window. Someone still in the hallway slowly clapped their hands.

"You've evaded capture quite well, boy." A face that seemed very familiar came into the room behind the soldiers. "And here I thought they'd been giving me petty made-up excuses about an unknown speedster." He held out his arms after the soldiers let him through. "Welcome to my Moon Base, Kid Flash. Do you like it? I built it specifically to hold your kind while my colleagues destroyed the rest of the hero community starting with the famed Justice League." I couldn't help but snort as I smirked.

"Destroy the hero community? Hold "my kind"? Keep dreaming, psycho." My mind kept trying to place him as the soldiers fanned out behind the guy.

"There is no place to run, boy. I know all of your speedster tricks. Come quietly and I will make your death less painful than the others'." My eyes narrowed, giving him a good glare.

"If you've hurt them, I swear -"

"I have not touched your fellow speedsters. They are all alive and doing reasonably well. So far. If you give yourself up now, I will lead you to them and I might even give them mercy." Looking around the control room as I grit my teeth, I glared back at the man, knowing I could get out of custody if I wanted with my speed.

"Let the other speedsters go free and I might give myself up."

The man smiled cruelly as he stepped back to a console and typed in a few things. One of the monitors turned on and I couldn't help but stiffen. On the screen was a large room, and in the middle of the room was a huge machine. Right in the middle of the machine, I could see over thirty speedsters hanging by their bound wrists in a cylindrical, clear holding cell, unconscious with the same knockout mask that Robin had gotten off of me over a week ago covering all of their mouths and noses.

"They are all still alive."

Not thinking about my own predicament, I went to the console to take a closer look when one of the soldiers wrapped their arms around my neck from behind. Within five seconds, two other soldiers had grabbed onto my wrists, wrenching my hands away from the arm around my neck that was cutting off my oxygen. I started vibrating like mad to get the three soldiers off of me when the leader slammed his fist into my abdomen, making me stop vibrating and fall to my knees right as the guy that had me by the neck let go for fear of falling to the floor himself. My arms were jacked behind my back by the two soldiers holding my wrists. The man chuckled darkly as I struggled on my knees before he grabbed me by my hair and forced my face up to look at him. I clenched my teeth, glaring up at his face.

"Let...go of me!" The man smiled as he lifted my head by my hair further up, craning my neck as I flinched.

"Foolish boy. I have battled all of your Flash predecessors. You are no match for me." His name finally came to my mind and I could tell that the fearful expression on my face pleased him immensely. "Yes, boy. I am Vandal Savage. And now that I have you, I can finish off the Flash Legacy in one fell swoop. I will finally achieve my peace."

Savage let my hair go as he stood to his full height before kicking me hard right in the stomach. Coughing and gasping, I could hear him start ordering the soldiers to get a mask and binders for me. One of the soldiers said that there wasn't room left where the other speedsters were.

"If there is no more room for the boy then we will make him watch the others die. I will kill him myself afterward." Another soldier came in and saluted, reminding Savage that the attack on the Watchtower had begun. I could tell Savage was smiling down at me before his boot was on the back of my head, pushing my face down to the floor as binders went around my ankles. "I am going to enjoy this. Get me a feed on the Justice League's Watchtower. I want the boy to witness history in the making."

After binders were around my wrists, two other soldiers pulled me to my bound feet, keeping me balanced between them as Savage smiled down at me. On all of the monitors, a shot of the Justice League's Watchtower Base showed small explosions going off over the whole structure. Soldiers cheered as debris from the Watchtower was propelled into the vacuum of space, along with a body or two. I looked away from the monitors, not wanting to see the raging battle but Savage grabbed my chin, and forced me to watch.

Only a few minutes into the battle, they lost the picture of the already mostly destroyed Watchtower to static. There was a collective grumble through the soldiers as Savage started barking orders at them. The two that had me started dragging me out of the control room and quickly down the hall. A minute and a lot of hallway corners later, the two that had been dragging me around stopped in front of a thick-looking door and gently put me down on my stomach. I started squirming on the floor, cursing at them before one of them put their hand on the middle of my back and the other one smacked me upside the head.

"Calm down, Kid Flash!" I stopped struggling, recognizing the voice of the one that hit me.

"R...Robin!? What-" The other one put their hand over my mouth.

"Not so loud, Kid." I could feel the bindings snap under Wanda's strength. "Do you want to get caught again?" Ethan smacked me upside the head again before Wanda broke off the bindings that still had my ankles.

"Dude, stop hitting me." Ethan narrowed his eyes behind the black ski mask he had on.

"That last one was for knocking me out in that storage room and stuffing me in the ventilation shaft." I smiled sheepishly at him but before I could apologize, he continued. "Now, the other speedsters are beyond this door and at the end of the long corridor. The door is locked but what I saw in the schematics of the base, the machine they're hooked to is a bomb ready to go off at the push of a button. The trigger button to the bomb itself is inside the room and only Savage has the means to unlock the doors. While W and I sabotage their "hero killing scheme" you need to vibrate through the doors and get the speedsters out before Savage has a chance to get in there and blow them and you to kingdom come." The three of us could hear people running down the hallway as Ethan shoved me towards the door as he and Wanda took off.

I vibrated through the thick door, and sped down the extremely long windowed corridor to the other set of thick doors. Taking a quick glance back where I came, I vibrated my molecules through the second door and stepped into the large room. Gawking at the huge machine in the middle of the otherwise blank-walled room, I walked slowly up to it.

"So this is why Savage disappeared over fifty years ago." I put my hands against the machine, wondering if I could somehow deactivate it before I felt a bone-chilling breeze at the back of my neck. I spun around, but didn't see anyone behind me. Taking a quick lap around the monstrosity, I didn't see any non-speedsters or even any computer consoles connected to the thing. Rubbing at the back of my neck, I backed up a little to get some momentum going so I could make it up to where the other speedsters were held. The moment I was far enough away, I could make out a sudden motion among my relatives.

Someone was moving! My heart soared before it fell right through my feet as the bone-chilling breeze went through me again. Right as the thick door began to open behind me and the outraged screams of Vandal Savage echoed down the corridor, I realized what was in the middle of the circular holding cell with my speedster relatives. Hope of a clean rescue mission was immediately blown out of my mind as it turned its head to look at me with those white, soulless eyes. Its rotting, masked face seemed to smile at me without lips as it turned its black and red costumed corpse body. Ice flooded my veins as I looked at it.

Death to speedsters.

The Black Flash.

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Chapter 7 End

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Thank you for reading and please review!


	9. Black and White

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

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**Chapter 8 Warning: Contains extreme graphic scenes. Mutilated dead bodies. Please be advised. You have been warned!**

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Chapter 8: Black and White

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I could dimly hear Vandal Savage's pounding footsteps coming towards me down the corridor, but I couldn't look away from the Black Flash's eery gaze. It was standing right in the middle space of the holding cell, surrounded by unconscious speedsters. Apparently, I stood there for too long and the next thing I knew, Savage had his arms around my torso, pinning my arms to my sides, trying to crush the breath out of me. I had to tear my eyes away from the Black Flash in order to try and get out from Savage's grasp. Just as I managed to worm and vibrate my way out, the door closed with a hiss and an ominous click. As soon as I was out of his grip, I got away from Savage easily enough and sped up the side of the machine, grabbing onto a part that stuck out just above the clear, thick plastic of the cell.

"Ignorant child!" I turned my head to look at the smug Savage as he slammed his hand on a panel of the wall. Kicking up my speed, I braced myself for the explosion , but it didn't come from the machine I was hanging onto. Behind the thick doors, I heard the thump of an explosion in the corridor that led to the room. Savage had trapped us all with no way out.

"You're an idiot! Now you're trapped here too! If you activate the bomb this place could..." A sick smile stretched across Savage's face.

"That's the point. I may be immortal, but I am tired of constantly fighting you speedsters. There is someone else in this room, isn't there boy?" I couldn't help but glance at the Black Flash that Savage couldn't see. "You see, I have heard of this fabled "Black Flash". I hear that if you touch it, you immediately die. The grim reaper of speedsters. I wondered if it works for non-speedsters as well. Perhaps I might be able to finally find peace also." Hesitating, I looked at Savage again.

"Wh...wait a minute. Find peace? What, you...you want to die?" Savage pulled at another panel of the wall, revealing a number of buttons.

"Taking all of the speedsters with me."

I immediately let the piece of the machine go and dropped to the floor, racing to stop Savage from pushing any of the buttons. Slamming into him, I managed to knock him off balance and shut the panel again before Savage grabbed me by my red hair, pulling me towards the machine. As he dragged me, I put a good deal of speed in my arm and cracked the heel of my hand into his elbow, hearing a satisfying crunch before he let me go with a howl.

Crouching, I kicked at the shin bone in his right leg, but just as it connected, he tottered forward and fell on top of me, knocking the wind out of my lungs. Savage had me pinned under his bulk and started punching my ribs. I swallowed a pained yell as I heard my ribcage crack and creak from the punches and his weight on my smaller frame. One of his knees hit my left calf, driving my leg into the floor before I started vibrating under him. The sudden friction made Savage yell in pain as he got off of me, his clothes smoking before I scrambled back towards the other speedsters, needing to get them out before Savage could get back up.

Working feverishly with my partially collapsed ribcage and throbbing left leg, I vibrated into the holding cell and grabbed the first speedster that was there, working at the binding that held him up. I got only two down and through the holding cell when I heard the panel open and I streaked to Savage again, slamming his forehead into the wall and trying to drag him away from the opened panel.

I didn't get him too far when I felt a horrible shock go through my system. Falling to the floor, I only glimpsed Savage sprinting back to the panel with his stun gun before I streaked for the machine. My whole body screamed in agony, but I didn't stop. Vibrating into the machine itself, I crossed wires everywhere I could before vibrating into the cell above the bomb, coming out right in front of Impulse. I grabbed her small body, practically ripping the bonds off of her as I heard the click of the bomb below me.

Taking a vibrating leap through the holding cell with my cousin in my arms, I felt the heat as the bomb slowly went off behind me. I was still in midair when the pressure wave threw me across the room, slamming Impulse and I into the back wall. I could feel the back of my uniform explode with heat when I fell to the floor with Impulse still in my arms. Curling myself around my cousin, I managed to shield her as shrapnel flew everywhere including into me. It felt like an hour of burning agony but the blast only lasted a few seconds and the burning shrapnel fell for half a minute afterward. Then, it was all over.

I couldn't move my body; there was so much pain. All I could do was stare at half of the room that I was facing, feeling the tears roll down my face as I got a good look at hell. It was a pure miracle that the blast hadn't torn a hole through one of the walls or ceiling since there was no depressurization and there was still air to breathe. Other than that, there was nothing else good about the explosion. The walls of the room were a nauseating mix of black charred pieces and blood splatters. On the floor in front of me, I could see through my half-lidded eyes twisted, charred metal and pieces of the walls and ceiling.

It wasn't the damage to the room that had my tears rolling down my face. I wanted to scream at what wasn't even three feet in front of me. A severed, charred hand was twitching underneath a piece of twisted metal. Beyond the horrifying hand, I saw seven speedster bodies among the wreckage of the room in front of me. Two were twisted and mutilated, parts of them smoking. Three were on fire, choking fumes coming off of them. The last two were only burned torsos with heads attached, their limbs had been ripped off and strewn across the room.

Though I tried to keep it from escaping, a whimper came out of my throat just as the Black Flash came into my view, touching every body I saw. When he touched one of the ripped apart torsos, the hand in front of me stopped twitching. I threw up blood and stomach acid as the Black Flash touched the burning speedster closest to where I lay before looking straight at me. On instinct, I tightened my arms around Impulse, watching the Black Flash as it came closer to me. It crouched in front of me, flexing its black claws. There was nothing I could do to prevent it from taking me.

I knew it and it knew it.

It started reaching out for me with that creepy look of satisfaction. I said a quick, silent goodbye to Impulse and my friends. The black claw was only five inches from touching my head when a golden-gloved hand grabbed the Black Flash's wrist. The Black Flash looked at who had its wrist and snarled as it backed away from me. A pair of golden boots with wingtips at the sides stepped between us.

"You and I both know it's not their time yet." The Black Flash roared at the man. "I know, but you're not finished with the others. Go about your business and leave the boy and young girl alone. Go on." Slinking out of sight, the Black Flash hissed as the man knelt down into my line of sight.

Where the Black Flash had red and black on its costume, the man had a shining gold and pure, almost blinding white. He had bright, kind blue eyes and a gentle smile on his face.

"You still have a long race to run, Kid. Don't worry. The speedsters the Black Flash touches will be coming with me." My eyelids drooped as pain overtook me. The last thing I saw before falling into blackness was the White Flash's smile.

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Pain. Agony. Burning. Choking.

I didn't know how long I had been out for. My body felt like it was on fire again. Every nerve ending in my back was screaming as I felt someone hold me down to a cold table. Shirtless, I was on my stomach in a too-cold, bright room with people yelling out things I couldn't decipher. On instinct I started vibrating to get away from whoever held me, but that made the pain ten times worse. Screaming in burning agony, I was pushed back down to the table before an oxygen mask was placed over my nose and mouth as my breathing became staggered and I struggled in the grip of at least three people much stronger than I was.

Shaking like a leaf as something sharp was pulled out of my back, I begged whoever it was to stop, tears running down my face. It felt like days of torture but was actually more like two or three minutes before I barely registered a pin-prick in my upper arm. The pain started to lessen immediately but I was getting weaker at the same rate. With one last begging plea for whoever was there to let me go, I fell into blackness once again.

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A steady, slightly fast rhythmic beeping sound started bringing me out of the total blackness I'd been in for far too long. There was an oxygen mask strapped around my head and over my nose and mouth, helping me breathe through my lethargic, rattling lungs. My once burning back had reduced to only a dull ache but my normally fast, clear thoughts were slow and very fuzzy which meant I must have been drugged up with an uncountable amount of pain medications. I could barely open my eyes I was so weak, but I managed to open them halfway. My eyes didn't want to focus correctly so all I saw were blobs of gray machinery and then two more human-shaped blobs I think were sitting in chairs near the bed I was in. One blob wore blue, red, and a little yellow while the other was in black and red with only a hint of yellow.

Superboy and Robin.

Neither of them were moving much so I assumed they had fallen asleep in the chairs. Closing my eyes again, my body relaxed a bit more as I coughed pitifully. Superboy must have bolted awake when I coughed since I heard him gasp and a chair fall backwards onto the floor. I felt his gentle hand on my shoulder and he whispered to me, almost afraid he hadn't heard me cough.

"Nick?" I forced my eyes to open almost halfway and I could see a huge, relieved smile crawl up his face. "Hey, buddy. Welcome back to the living world."

I let out a small cough again as I saw him nudge my cousin awake. Robin bolted to his feet, a batarang suddenly in his hand, ready to fight before he noticed my eyes open. Putting away the razor-sharp weapon, Robin stood beside Superboy, assessing my condition before turning to the door and leaving. Superboy noticed my hurt expression and scooted one of the four chairs in the room closer to my bed.

"He'll be back. We made Wanda get some sleep a few hours ago. How're you feeling?" I closed my eyes, trying to get enough energy for a full sentence, but my barely-there breathy voice didn't let me talk more than a few words.

"Weak. Wherem I?" I coughed a few times, feeling and tasting smoky scum coming from my lungs and scratchy throat.

"Med Bay in Titans Tower. You've been out for five days straight. Three days without the speedster sedative." I knew I was too weak to move, but I tried anyway. "Whoa whoa. Take it easy." His hand was on my chest, keeping me from sitting up. "Save your strength, you're still real weak. The League's doctors said you should rest at least for another three days. You'll be coughing for awhile from the amount of smoke you inhaled before being rescued and no one wants you to move too much cause you still have small pieces of shrapnel in your back." I groaned a little, relaxing in the bed again. "One of the League doctors volunteered to stay at the Tower to monitor you. They've been in and out every two hours or so to check how you're healing." I opened an eye again to look at his blurry face.

"How bad?"

"How bad are you? Pretty bad. Second and third degree burns on your back and on the backs of your legs and upper arms; those are only half healed. The left side of your ribcage was collapsed, they managed to fix that in the six hour surgery. Your lower left leg had a few fractures, but those are mostly gone. Lots of smoke inhalation that you'll be coughing up while you're awake. Most of the scratches and bruises are gone with the exception of the parts of your back that had pieces of shrapnel sticking out that they had to remove during surgery. There was also a lot of internal bleeding we think from the initial blast that...uh..." He stopped talking, suddenly looking nervous right before the door opened and Ethan came in out of costume with Wanda. Superboy moved out of Wanda's way immediately as she grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently.

"We were so worried that we'd lost you. When the League refused to tell us what happened to you and the speedsters, I feared the worst." I managed to focus my mind on what Wanda said and what Superboy didn't say.

"The other speedsters." Wanda looked back at Ethan as Superboy, taking a sudden shaking breath, left the room, excusing himself. My memories of that horrid room leaked through my fuzzy brain and I closed my eyes as the decaying face of the Black Flash came to the forefront of my mind's eye. Shuddering, I took a deep, rattling breath. "I saw it...the Black Flash was there. How many..." I felt Wanda's hand stroking my hair gently.

"Ssshh. That doesn't matter. You're here and you're alive." I looked to Ethan, knowing that my cousin would tell me how many speedsters I had failed to save.

"Please...tell me." Wanda glanced at Ethan as he sighed sadly.

"Out of thirty-four missing speedsters, only you, Impulse, and one other survived. Thirty-one casualties were reported." I closed my eyes, feeling the burn of tears. "The public heroic funeral is set at the Flash Museum next week while the private, civilian funerals are scattered within the next three weeks. I believe you should be healed enough to attend at least most, if not all of them."

I kept my eyes closed as the tears started to roll down my face as Wanda squeezed my hand gently, silently telling me that my friends were there for me.

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Chapter 8 End

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Thank you for reading and please review!


	10. Blitz And The Little Girl

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 9: Blitz And The Little Girl

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I lay shirtless on my stomach as Wanda smoothed healing cream over the last of my burns. It had been five days since I woke up in the Medical Bay of Titans Tower and I was enduring the last checkup before I left for Central City and for my Aunt's house. My powerless Aunt decided to take me in since she was used to dealing with speedsters, what with her being Emily's mother and married into the family. For the last week, she had been packing up the house my father and I had been living in along with the help of family friends who knew about the family's powers. She said that she'd be thrilled to officially adopt me, but I think its mostly because she wants me to watch over Emily since she and my Uncle had been going through a hard time in their marriage before the disappearances.

"Almost done, Nickie. Stop fidgeting." Sighing in frustration, I tried to hold still a little longer, remembering the last time she'd called me that before spoiling my good mood. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us tomorrow to the Flash Museum?" The heroic public funeral was scheduled tomorrow in Central City.

"I'm sure. Thank you for offering though, but I don't feel like making a spectacle. There is no Kid Flash on the Teen Titans' roster. If I showed up with you guys...and in a Kid Flash costume..." I let the sentence hang.

"You were the one that saved Impulse and Blitz. It's because if you that Impulse came out of that ordeal with only minor injuries. I know Blitz will want to thank you." She pat my back to indicate she was done and put the lid back on the tub of cream as I swung my legs over the side and turned so I was sitting.

"He knows where Titans Tower is and where my Aunt Gloria's place is." Wanda slammed the tub of cream on the counter top a little harder than she meant to.

"That's not the point Nick. If it weren't for you, there would be NO speedsters left alive at all. Its not only Blitz that wants to thank you. The rest of the hero community thinks you're the last chance for the Flash Legacy." I rolled my eyes for a moment, hopping off the table to my feet.

"Is that what you and the other Titans think too? That I'm going to be the next Flash? What about Emily? She has the genes too."

"But you're the last male Allen left alive. Look what happened to the West and the Quick lines over the generations."

"So I'm screwed because of my genetics. Way to put it into perspective, Wanda." I started walking out until she put her hand on my shoulder.

"The Flash has always been the heart of the Justice League, Nick. And now? We need that heart more than ever." I sighed, looking back at one of my closest friends.

"I'm not a Flash, Wanda."

"Not yet. But the four of us know you have always had the makings of a true Flash." I looked at the ground, not wanting to face her absolute confidence in me. "Please, at least consider coming with us tomorrow." I glanced at her once more, shrugging her hand off.

"I'll think about it."

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There were traffic jams on the ground and in the air the next day. Central City was packed to bursting with people and heroes from around the world wanting to pay their respects to the thirty-one deceased speedsters. Relatives of the deceased that lived in Central and Keystone City were inundated with heroes that came in civilian clothes. When the heroes started coming to my Aunt's house to see how Emily and I were holding up, Aunt Gloria was generous to the first visitors of the morning, but halfway through breakfast, she began turning them all away, almost screaming that all she wanted was peace and quiet. Something told me we wouldn't last too long in her care.

At noon, Emily had plans to meet her team at a certain park just outside of Central City and my Aunt demanded that I take her. It took us about an hour of silence for me to drive through the ground traffic to the park, but instead of heading straight back after her team picked her up, I sat on a park bench people watching. It was peaceful alone on the bench. No screaming Aunt, no pitiful looks from others. I was just an anonymous Central City teenager sitting quietly on a nice day.

I sat there for about four minutes and twenty seven seconds before someone sat down on the middle of the bench not a foot to my left. He was a taller, older guy with white hair and a surprisingly good amount of lean muscle on him but he simply opened a Central City newspaper, not saying a word to me. The front of the paper was all about the Flash Museum's Memorial to the speedsters. I turned away from the guy but he suddenly sighed.

"Pity. So many in such a short amount of time." He looked at me with clear, blue eyes. "Are you going to pay your respects at the Flash Museum today, boy?" I opened my mouth to say something a little snarky to him until the old guy gave me a smile. His kind, blue eyes and gentle smile reminded me of another man that had been in that room of horrors. I hadn't thought of it, but I had seen the White Flash before. I stood up and smiled at the old man.

"As a matter of fact, I'm thinking of going there now." The man's gentle smile widened into a knowing one.

"Perhaps I will see you there." It felt like I was suddenly talking to a grandfather I hadn't seen in years. I gave him a smile and trotted back to my Aunt's car, planning to drive it back to the house and then run to the Flash Museum.

When I got to my Aunt's, I jogged inside at human pace and into my room in the basement. I changed into clothes that weren't riddled with holes and was about to turn off the light when something glinted in the middle of my bed. A gold Flash ring that I hadn't seen was sitting on top of a small sheet of paper that had two T's on it. I picked up the ring, knowing it had another Kid Flash costume in it that Ethan made for me. Staring at it for a few moments, I slowly put it on the middle finger of my right hand and made a fist, looking at it for a few more moments. Deciding to leave it on just in case, I turned off the light and actually sped out the back door, running to the Flash Museum to see if I could find out who the White Flash was.

Standing on the other side of the street, I could tell the Flash Museum was crowded beyond recognition. There must have been thousands of people coming to pay their respects. Many of them put flowers at the sign and entrance of the museum. The most surprising was the ring of flying heroes from all over the world that were twenty feet above the Flash Museum like silent sentinels. Every so often, another hero would come soaring in and join the others in the ring as one or two would fly down to the ground to rest but the one above the entrance, Superman, hadn't come down yet. All around the grounds of the museum were hundreds of heroes and teams that knew at least one of the speedsters that had died. There were ropes separating the heroes from the general public and only if the heroes walked up to the ropes were the public actually allowed to converse with them.

The paparazzi were EVERYWHERE outside the museum. I avoided as many reporters as I could when I joined the throng to go inside the museum, but as I looked up at the heroes above the crowd, Superman noticed me and gave me an encouraging smile. Managing to get into the museum, I immediately saw another roped-off area, but whoever passed it would fall silent immediately. It had thirty-one lit candles in it along with my distant Uncle, Blitz, in a wheelchair. Like a magnet, I was drawn to him. No one told me how bad his injuries had been, and now I could see why.

He was missing his right leg.

Blitz, like most speedsters, was normally pretty chatty and energetic, but this Blitz was quiet and far too withdrawn. His head hung sadly, not paying attention to any of the crowd that passed. I stopped right in front of the rope, horrified at what happened to him. A speedster that couldn't run. He always loved being a hero; helping people was the best high for him. Now? It was a miracle that he had the strength to keep on living. I hung my head, ashamed at my own selfishness.

"Don't give up, kid." My head came up at his quiet whisper and he and I locked eyes, my green to his clear blue. He somehow knew only I could hear him. "Don't you dare ever give up. I might not be able to run anymore, but at least I'm still alive and willing to do the right thing; I thank you for that." He looked at my hand that had the Flash ring on it and a small, hopeful smile tugged at the corners of his mouth before he looked at the candles. I backed away from him, feeling something stirring inside of me as I slowly walked to the Flash wing of the museum.

The encounter with Blitz shook me a little bit, and as I walked, the voices from several people went through my head.

_"They called them the greatest heroes who ever existed. Legends of their legendary legacies."_

_ "You know, the rest of the League and even the Lantern Corps tell me that whenever a human is picked to become a Green Lantern and join the Justice League, a Flash isn't too far behind."_

_ "I guess I knew you'd someday be back. Once a hero, always a hero."_

_ "The Flash has always been the heart of the Justice League, Nick. And now? We need that heart more than ever."_

I stopped in front of a Flash poster, shaking my head to try and clear the voices until I looked up at the poster. A Green Lantern and a Flash were posing with each other in front of a seemingly disgruntled Batman. Stepping back from the poster, I stared at the Flash's gentle smile and kind, blue eyes.

I couldn't believe it. The White Flash was smiling right at me from the poster just as his voice came into my head.

_ "You still have a long race to run, Kid."_

Barry Allen is the White Flash. I don't know how long I stared at the picture of Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, but the next thing I knew, I heard a kid's cry near me. Blinking out of my shocked thoughts, I looked around at the people near me, but there were no young kids that I could see. Normally, the younger kids were in the Impulse and Kid Flash wings, but I managed to spot a small tennis shoe barely sticking out from behind a huge display case close to the wall. Walking over, I bent down to see a small three year old girl crying for her mother. Trying to sound non-threatening, I couldn't help but reach down for the girl.

"Hey, there. Are you lost?" The little girl looked up and her eyes went wide in fear when she saw me and scooted further behind the display where I couldn't really reach her. "Its okay, I won't hurt you."

"No. Go away. I want my mommy!"

I started getting a few curious looks from people near the display as the girl started crying louder. Backing away from the child as a few adults went to try and coax her out, I felt the Flash ring on my finger. The poor little girl was quickly becoming terrified with all the people around her and there was still no sign of any panicked parent. An idea popped into my head but if I followed my sudden plan, there would be no going back. One terrified scream decided me and I threaded through the sudden crowd, reaching a bathroom that was blessedly empty and changed into my Kid Flash costume.

Going for the door, I stopped with my red-gloved hand on the door, making sure I wanted to do this. Taking a deep breath, I knew this was the turning point in my life. I knew the world needed a true Flash; but I didn't know if I was really worthy of the title. The moment I heard the little girl scream through the door though, I pushed it open, ready to face the consequences.

I went through the already growing crowd like water and within a second was behind a man that was trying to reach the girl. The crowd that had already assembled grew quiet behind me just as I cleared my throat loudly.

"Let me try."

I got to see the man's eyes grow comically huge and he stumbled back, letting me have more than enough room. Since the girl was in the Flash Museum, I hoped she was a fan of the Flash and maybe Kid Flash so I knelt down in front of the very skinny entrance to where the little girl had crawled into. She looked at me for a few moments as I reached my gloved hand out to her.

"Its okay. I'm Kid Flash and I won't let anything happen to you." The little girl sniffled once and suddenly scrambled towards me latching her arms around my neck as I practically fell backwards onto my butt from her forward momentum. I wrapped my arms around the crying girl and got up to my feet, hugging her to me. "Its okay, kiddo. Lets go find your parents." She simply nodded and as I started walking, the crowd split in front of me, giving me a clear path.

Whispers flew ahead of me, and as I came to the front lobby with the girl still in my arms, hundreds of people crammed in the buzzing lobby, but I still had a clear path to two astonished policemen with a distraught couple. I walked up to them, cameras flashing all over the room as I stopped in front of the couple.

"Sir, ma'am? You might want to keep a closer eye on your daughter next time." I handed the grateful couple their daughter and started walking towards the entrance when the little girl scrambled out of her parents' arms and ran after me, hugging my legs.

"Thank you, Kid Flash." I couldn't help but gently smile down at her before she ran back to her parents.

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Chapter 9 End

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Thank you for reading and please review!


	11. Those At My Side

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 10: Those At My Side

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After the fiasco of reporters calmed down from my initial appearance and when I took down the ropes between the heroes and the public, I managed to find the Titans. Of course, Robin had a smug look on his face before Impulse came out of nowhere and attached herself to me as Blitz wheeled himself over. The rest of the day was filled with heroes, heroines, and the public giving their condolences to the three of us. When the Flash Museum closed after dark, I managed to convince Impulse to stay at Mount Justice with her team for the night. Blitz was carried away by one of his team members and I said a few last goodbyes to other heroes and heroines until it was just Robin, Wonder Girl, Superboy, Green Lantern, and me. I wandered up the steps of the Flash Museum as the four talked nearby.

Picking up a few stray flowers that people left, I put them with the huge pile of other flowers. I felt drained from the whole day's events. Just as I picked up another flower, I could feel a lump form in my throat as I thought of Blitz and the speedsters that the world lost. My knees suddenly buckled from under me, and I sat near the top of the steps with the red rose that I'd just picked up. All of the mentors that could have taught me how to use my speed to become a better hero were gone. I hadn't truly mourned for the loss of my father yet. Right then, it finally hit me.

I was an orphan.

Wiping furiously at the tears that started falling from my eyes, I turned away from my friends and saw a small shadow heading towards a window of the museum. Glancing at the four still conversing at the bottom of the steps, I sucked up my emotions and quickly sped towards the shadow. Just as the shadow got to one of the windows, I recognized it as the little brown-haired boy, Jack.

I could hear him sniffling and he had a few dandelions in his little fist. He started to try and push the window up before a sob escaped his little frame. That little sob re-started my own waterworks and the boy jumped in surprise, whirling around to look at my teary face. Without a word, he ran the few feet to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, sobbing into my stomach before I knelt down, wrapping my arms around him and let him bury his face into my neck. I knew when my friends came over to where Jack and I were, him sobbing and me crying silently. It took a few minutes, but the boy finally managed to speak against my neck, not wanting to let me go.

"I...I thought you...you were one of the...the ones that died!" I hugged him a little closer.

"No. Both Impulse and I are still alive, kiddo." He pulled back a little to look at me.

"I'm sorry...that I missed the thing today." I smiled a little through my tears, about to say that it was alright when I heard the scratch of a match. Robin had five candles in his hands and Superboy started lighting them, handing the first one to Wonder Girl.

"Since you missed it, you're welcome to join our smaller, less publicized memorial." Robin knelt next to us, holding two lit candles to Jack and I. "Just don't burn yourself."

Superboy held out the last candle to Green Lantern but a small, green lit candle appeared in Lantern's hand and he smiled at Superboy. As I carried Jack in my arms, the five of us walked to the front of the Flash Museum and stood silently for a few moments. Tears cascaded down Jack's eyes as I put him down and he added his little fistful of dandelions to the pile of flowers. I felt Green Lantern's hand squeeze my shoulder in comfort and Wonder Girl hugged my other arm as I cried silently. Jack came back to my side, hugging my waist as he buried his teary face into my side.

"I'm glad you're not dead, Kid Flash." I looked down at Jack as he sniffled and I felt Superboy give me a one-armed hug.

"So are we, KF."

I looked up at the lightning symbol above the entrance of the Flash Museum as I put my right hand over the symbol on my own chest, silently giving the past Flashes an oath that I would uphold the legacy and become the seventh Flash.

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A week ago, I tried to convince my crazy Aunt Gloria that I could survive on my own; I was going to turn seventeen in a few months anyways. To my astonishment, she completely agreed with me and wanted me to take Emily with me too. That is, until all the other adult figures in my life stepped in and suddenly, Emily and I were shifted from Aunt Gloria in Central City to Uncle Bart in Keystone City with a little surprise mixed in. Without anyone the wiser, Uncle Bart also adopted the speedster-loving boy, Jack. He told me that he'd been looking for his lost West nephew for years. Who knew that I was distantly related to Jack?

Now, I stood quietly in the front row, not really listening to the preacher's words. It was pretty warm out and there was a slight breeze that blew through the graveyard; rustling the fake flowers that were all around. My father was the last funeral in a very long line of funerals to go to. And I thought yesterday was tough with laying Emily's father to rest. This was infinitely harder to see my father waiting to be lowered into the spot next to where my mother was buried. All my relatives that went to the other thirty funerals were there along with my friends.

But to me, I was alone with just the casket in that silent graveyard.

I didn't hear it when the preacher asked me to put the rose I had onto the casket so they could lower it into the ground; I just stared at the beautiful wooden box. Someone just barely nudged the back of my knee and as if I were a stringed puppet, I numbly walked forward and put the rose on the casket before walking backwards to where I'd been standing before. The casket was lowered as people started leaving for their cars.

Staring at the two headstones, tears flowed silently down my face. People squeezed me on the shoulder and hugged me, saying reassuring things but I stood frozen to the spot. For how long I stood there just staring at my father and mother's headstones, I never knew. It wasn't until someone grabbed my shoulders and started steering me to a black car that I moved, silently obeying whoever it was that was leading me. As I sat in the car, I heard my Grandpa Wayne tell the driver to go back to Keystone City, where my distant Uncle Bart (Blitz) lived. As soon as the car started moving, my Grandpa Wayne pulled me into him, telling me everything would be okay. Within a matter of seconds, I was sobbing. No matter how much my dad annoyed me about the family legacy, I never wanted him dead. Now, I was determined to follow through with my father's wishes.

It took me most of the ride to Keystone to calm down, but neither Grandpa Wayne or Ethan (I didn't notice him getting into the car too) minded. On the contrary, Ethan told the driver to park a few houses down until I was calm enough to face the relatives congregated at my Uncle Bart's. As soon as we went into the door, I was pulled into hugs from a few distant Aunts and Uncles until I got to my spacious upstairs room and closed the door, not surprised to already find Andrew, Wanda, and Ethan making themselves at home. It was a surprise to see Teague among them though. Taking a shaky breath, I let Wanda give me a reassuring hug before I sat between Andrew and Teague on my new bed, putting my head in my hands. Andrew draped an arm over my drooped shoulders.

"How you doing bro?" I groaned, rubbing my face before I saw Ethan put our customary stolen platter of sandwiches for us on my desk.

"Glad all the funerals are over." Teague nodded, stretching out a little beside me.

"You mean glad that this one was the last? You look like hell warmed over." I shot Teague a dirty look before Ethan leaned back on my desk chair.

"You know my offer still stands on the week off duty, Nick. A lot has happened since you accepted the Kid Flash name. I need you to be in the right mindset in order to use you to your fullest." Frowning a little, I couldn't help but wonder how much losing speedster relatives may have effected Ethan too.

"I'll take five days. My Uncle Bart wants to teach Emily and I a few things about being successful speedsters." Wanda chuckled.

"You know, I swear Blitz has gotten even faster and more annoying on that new wheelchair of his." I snorted in amusement.

"Blame Star Labs. That wheelchair was made specially for him. I swear he can still go the speed of sound in that thing and not break a sweat." Teague chuckled as his ring lit up, grabbing a sandwich across the room for him.

"Speaking of labs, Nick...the velocity machine's door has finally been fixed in the Tower. Guess what you're gonna be doing a week from now." I ran my hand through my hair, grumbling a bit.

"What am I a guinea pig? And why are you always hanging out with us all of a sudden Teague? You're a Leaguer not a Titan!" A grin climbed up on his face.

"Aaaahh, but I know for a fact that Leaguers can be on more than one team. Its a nice little bonus about being one of the top dogs; I can choose to be on another team at the same time." Ethan's blue eyes narrowed.

"What makes you think I'll allow someone like you into my team? You may be a Leaguer but I'm still the leader of the Teen Titans and I still have a say in who is in or out." Teague cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Sooooo you're saying I don't belong with you guys? C'mon I'm only a little older than you and most of the League is in their forties and even fifties. I'd rather be on the Titans with you guys than on the League without you." A cocky smirk appeared on Ethan's face.

"I'm not saying you can't be a Titan, I'm just saying I'm still the leader of the Titans and therefore if you really want to be one of us, you will have to follow my orders like a good little minion." Teague smiled.

"Its a...wait a minute. Who are you calling a minion? I'm a Green Lantern not a Bat-minion." The rest of us started chuckling as Teague fumed.

As I watched my four friends banter back and forth, I started to wonder if I could really live up to the Flash Legacy and actually become the seventh Flash.

Something inside me knew that I couldn't do it alone.

But I knew I could live up to my birthright and then some with these four at my side.

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Chapter 10 End

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Thank you for reading and please review!


	12. Epilogue: The Heart Rises

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the superhero legacies or code names that are mentioned at any time in this story, DC Comics does. Any character that is not in DC I have made up so please do not steal them without permission from me. All characters and situations are fictitious. Scenarios in this story (to my knowledge) have not been used in any run of DC Comics. I hope you enjoy!

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A/N: Alas, we've come to the last chapter. I may some day add other stories to this (there are a few years between I can dabble with) but for right now, this is the end.

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Epilogue: The Heart Rises

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Three Years Later:

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I looked in the mirror again, trying to calm the nervous vibrations that kept running down my body. Taking a few steps to my right, I peeked out from behind the background at the sea of people gathered in front of the Hall of Justice. It had only been two months since Ethan, Wanda, and Andrew all joined the Justice League as the new Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman. Though they already started leading the forty plus heroes already in the League, Andrew's grandfather still held the reigns, teaching Andrew and Ethan how to handle the responsibilities connected with such a team. They were joined in the League by Seth (Splice), Tanya (now the new Green Arrow and my girlfriend by the way), and Matt (the new Aquaman). Most of the League were on the stage except for Green Lantern and the Leaguers that were already on missions. A sudden green glow appeared behind me before Green Lantern landed, looking at my reflection.

"You look so nervous, man." I elbowed him in the ribs easily. "Don't worry, it'll be over before you know it."

"Gee, thanks GL." I heard rubber wheels coming up behind me along with a pair of boots and I smiled, turning to see my Uncle Bart and a de-cowled Emily. My uncle had a huge grin on his face. For the last three years, he'd become a mentor to Emily and I; training us on how to use our speed correctly. Emily still wasn't as fast as I was, but she did manage to break the speed barrier several times in the last year. Uncle Bart looked up at my cowled face, smiling.

"I'm so proud of both of you."

Emily smiled as her comm-link beeped around her neck and she pulled her Kid Flash cowl back on her face, excusing herself as my uncle wheeled himself after her, yelling about how that better not be Jack calling for her. I smiled, chuckling as Green Lantern draped an arm over my shoulders, starting to steer me closer to the stage where Andrew, in full Superman costume, was giving a speech. Vibrating a little again, I waited for my cue to step onto the stage just as Green Lantern gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze before flying up next to Wonder Woman on stage, giving the glaring Batman a cheesy grin and a thumbs up. Superman ignored them and started saying the line I've been waiting for as I took a deep, calming breath.

"Ladies and gentlemen assembled here today for this momentous occasion, it is with great privilege and pleasure that I introduce you to the newest member of the Justice League..." I stepped up onto the stage with a smile on my face, walking at human pace to my best friend's side as the crowd cheered.

"The Flash."

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Finis.

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Thank you very much for reading this Flash/Teen Titans fanfiction. I truly hoped you enjoyed it. Please review!

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There is one more epilogue of an epilogue in my short story collection for Heart's Legacy. Check out Chapter 3 in Speedsterandom!


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